Inside China Tech: Protectionism on the rise with India app ban, China tech export controls
- India announced on Wednesday that it was banning another 118 Chinese apps including PUBG Mobile, Baidu and Alipay
- Huawei says it redirected investments from the US to Russia after it was placed on the former’s Entity List
Hello, this is Melissa Zhu from SCMP’s tech desk in Hong Kong with a round-up of some of our most important stories this week.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said it decided to ban these apps “in view of information available they are engaged in activities which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order”.
02:05
India bans another 118 Chinese apps as border tensions escalate
However, analysts told us that the move was more likely an “economic retaliation” for border tensions between the two nuclear powers.
“This is a strong signal that all Chinese apps are not welcome,” said Liuqing Yu, a country analyst with research group The Economist Intelligence Unit in Singapore. Banning apps such as Alipay and dating app Tantan, which are not actually available in India, is a strong indication that the motivation for the ban goes beyond pure market concerns, he added.
Chinese authorities, on their part, have slammed the move.
“Abusing the notion of national security, India has adopted discriminatory, restrictive measures against Chinese companies,” the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on Thursday. “China urges India to rectify its wrongful conduct. Business cooperation between China and India is a win-win scenario for both.”
Read Josh Ye’s full story for more:
India bans 118 Chinese apps including PUBG Mobile amid border tensions
Huawei in Russia
03:19
Huawei’s Ren Zhengfei says he drew on the best of US politics and business to found telecoms giant
But the Shenzhen-based company has become a pawn in the great power game between the US and China.
At a summit in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao over the weekend, Yu said the company was still “trying to find a way to cope with the US ban on chips”, according to local reports.
Find out what else Huawei is doing to stay afloat, as reported by Celia Chen:
Huawei redirected investment to Russia because of US sanctions, Ren says
China export restrictions
The Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Science and Technology on Friday jointly updated a catalogue of technology exports that are banned or restricted, for the first time since the list was published in 2008, amid rising tensions between the US and China over technology and intellectual property.
Among the newly-added restrictions are “personalised information recommendation service technology based on data analysis” and “artificial intelligence interactive interfaces”, one type of which uses voice recognition.
00:34
Donald Trump insists deadline for TikTok sale due on September 15
These technologies are widely used by TikTok and other products from Chinese owner ByteDance, all of which curate content feeds based on user preferences and activity.
The updated rule requires additional government approval for restricted exports and will likely affect ByteDance’s sale of TikTok in the US, which has been demanded by Washington by mid-November as a condition for it to remain in business there, experts said.
“Moves like this signal that technology protectionism is likely to become an even more significant consideration for companies doing business in the US/China context,” said Nathaniel Rushforth, a US-qualified lawyer and cybersecurity specialist at Shanghai-based DaWo Law Firm.
More on how the new restrictions are likely to complicate TikTok’s sale in Coco Feng, Tracy Qu and Amanda Lee’s full story: