Two-sided trade between China and India touched US$89.6 billion in 2017–18, with the trade deficit widening to US$62.9 billion in China’s favour. In 2017, the capacity of two-sided trade between India & China stands at US$84.5 billion. By 2020 relatives had deteriorated over 2020 China–India skirmishes. As border tensions between India and China flared up with the deadliest clash in more than four decades, leaving at least 20 Indian soldiers dead, there have been calls for boycotting goods imported from the neighbouring nation. That, won’t be easy because the two economies are intertwined. China is Asia’s largest economy and the world’s second-biggest with a GDP of about $13.6 trillion. India is No. 3 in Asia at $2.7 trillion. From supplying manufacturing machinery and raw materials to funds in India’s start-ups and skill firms, China is India’s main trading associate after the U.S.
India-China Trade
China accounted for over 5% of India’s total spreads in monetary year 2019-20 and more than 14% of imports. Meaning, India runs a huge skill short fall with China, the biggest exporter to India. Even as the absolute value of imports from our national may have fallen, their share in the overall pie rose from 13.68% in the previous fiscal. India, according to state-backed Capitalize India data, is the seventh largest export destination for Chinese products. Chinese exports to India comprise smartphones, electrical appliances, power plant inputs, fertilisers, auto components, finished steel products, capital goods like power plants, telecom equipment, metro rail coaches, iron and steel products, medicinal ingredients, chemicals and plastics and manufacturing Goods among other things giving to the Ministry of Commerce.
According to Exploit India, there are unevenly 800 Chinese companies in the domestic market. They have unevenly 75 industrial facilities for smartphones, consumer appliances, construction equipment, power gear, automobiles, optical fibre, and chemicals.
Chinese Hooks in India’s Start-ups
Chinese funds and companies often route their savings in India through offices located in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Mauritius, a Gateway House report said. For example, Alibaba Group’s investment in Paytm came via Alibaba Singapore Holdings Pvt. These don’t get recorded in India’s administration data as Chinese investments, the report said.
The Smartphone Dominance
Chinese stylish phones brands, led by Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo, are market leaders in India with an approximate 72% share put together, leaving Samsung and Apple behind, according to a report by Gateway House. Quarterly data by Counterpoint corroborates this. TikTok isn’t the only China-backed mobile request with a huge following in India. According to App Annie’s The State of Mobile in 2019 report, India saw a 165% increase in app downloads between 2016 and 2018. Half of these download on both IOS and Google Play Store were for apps with Chinese investments, including UC Browser, SHAREit, and Vigo Video. “Such Chinese apps harvest more than standard amounts of data as compared to other social media apps, posing security concerns for India,” the Gateway House said.
India’s Dependence on China for Bulk Drugs
India’s pharmaceutical manufacturing is the third largest in the world in by volume and ranks 14 by value. The country exported medicines value over $14 billion to the U.S. in 2018-19.
India-China Tourism
Travel between India and China has been growing. Or at least it was before the Covid-19 pandemic. Mainland China was the eighth-largest market for India in 2018 with nearly 3% share in total arrivals. As of just 1,371 arrivals in 1981, the number rose to 2.8 lakh in 2018, growing at an annualised rate of 32.4%, according to data available with the Tourism Ministry of India. 48% of the arrivals were for business purposes, and another 48%for leisure.