Factbox: India's clampdown on Chinese products and investment

KRAFTON

21/10/2024 13:48

NEW DELHI, Oct 21 (Reuters) - India and China have
reached a deal on patrolling their disputed Himalayan frontier,
aiming to resolve a four-year military stand-off, Indian Foreign
Secretary Vikram Misri said on Monday.
    The two nuclear-armed neighbours have had tense relations
since their troops clashed on the largely undemarcated frontier
in 2020, leaving 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers dead.
    Here are some areas affected by India's strained ties with
China since then:
    
    NO DIRECT FLIGHTS
    The two countries have not had any direct flights for four
years. China has been pressing India to restart direct passenger
flights and India's aviation minister said last month the two
countries discussed an early resumption of scheduled passenger
flights. 
    
    VISA RULES FOR CHINESE TECHNICIANS
    India increased scrutiny for visa applications from Chinese
citizens in the wake of the border clashes. This hurt some of
India's key manufacturing firms as stricter visa rules meant
specialised engineers from China could not enter the country,
leading to production losses. 
    After industry complaints, India recently decided to speed
up processing of visas for Chinese technicians.
    
    NEW INVESTMENT VETTING RULES
    In 2020, India stepped up scrutiny of investments from
companies based in neighbouring countries by adding an extra
layer of vetting and security clearances, in what was widely
seen as a move to stave off takeovers and investments by Chinese
firms. 
    It has led to billions of dollars in proposed investment
getting stuck in the approval process over the last four years,
including the stalling or shelving of investment worth billions
from companies like BYD  002594.SZ  and Great Wall Motor
 601633.SS .
    
    MOBILE APPS BAN
    Citing data and privacy issues, India has banned about 300
Chinese mobile apps including popular ones such as the
battle-royale format game from Krafton Inc  259960.KS , a South
Korean company backed by China's Tencent  0700.HK .
    
    XIAOMI ASSET FREEZE
    Indian authorities last year accused Chinese smartphone
company Vivo Communication Technology of breaching some visa
rules and alleged it siphoned $13 billion in funds.
    India has frozen more than $600 million in Xiaomi  1810.HK 
assets for alleged illegal remittances to foreign entities,
accusing the company of passing them off as royalty payments.
    Both Chinese companies deny any wrongdoing.

 (Compiled by Tanvi Mehta
Editing by Christina Fincher)
 ((Aftab.Ahmed@thomsonreuters.com; +91 99109 33884; Reuters
Messaging: twitter: @aftabahmed00))