Indian government to take action against 7 Chinese companies like Huawei, Tencent over ‘links’ with PLA

The Tatva Staff July 19, 2020

Reportedly, fresh Chinese investment in Indian companies including startups will now be scrutinized in detail to ensure that they do not pose any security threat.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance and SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) is planning to impose checks on FII (Foreign institutional investors) from China while ensuring that it does not affect the Indian market sentiment.

“The data are being looked at and the two agencies will decide the threshold and the system of reporting and monitoring,” the report stated.

Companies like Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent are a part of several important projects in China such as their military-civil fusion and artificial intelligence projects.

A 2019 report of US-China economic and security review commission stated, “under China’s military-civil fusion policy, government-supported mechanisms, including venture capital (VC) funds…(are used for) leveraging the fruits of civilian innovation for China’s defence sector”.

Alibaba has invested in popular Indian start-ups like Paytm, Zomato, Big basket, Xpressbees and Snapdeal. Tencent has investments of about $400 million in Ola cabs, $700 million in Flipkart. It is also behind popular gaming apps like PUBG Mobile, Call of Duty Mobile, Fortnite and others.

Besides the digital space, Chinese firms have also entered other sectors in India.

The metal products manufacturing Xinxing Cathay International Group is in India through various ventures including a Joint Venture Xindia Steels Ltd.

SAIC Motor Corporation which is a Chinese state-owned automobile company based in Shanghai sells the well-known MG Hector vehicle in India. One of its subsidiary, Nanjing Automobile previously was a servicing unit of PLA.

Certain employees of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC) were convicted of spying for the military. The technology it provides is accused of being used for committing human rights violations in China’s Xinjiang province.