Factbox: India's measures targeting Chinese products and investment

KRAFTON

05/08/2023 11:54

NEW DELHI, Aug 5 (Reuters) - India said on Friday it
would defer the imposition of a licensing requirement for
imports of laptops, tablets and personal computers by three
months - partially reversing the surprise decision it announced
a day earlier.
    While India has not said the new requirement is aimed at
China, more than half of its roughly $10 billion in annual
imports of personal computers and tablets are Chinese-made.
    Relations between the countries have deteriorated since
mid-2020, when Chinese and Indian troops clashed on their
disputed Himalayan frontier and 24 people were killed.
    Several Indian government officials, who asked not to be
named, said the licensing measure aimed to address a trade
imbalance with China. 
    Here are some other Chinese trade and investment ventures
affected by Indian measures since 2020:
    
    INVESTMENT PLAN BY BYD
    China's BYD  002594.SZ  told its India joint-venture partner
last month it would shelve plans for a new $1-billion investment
to build electric cars after its investment proposal faced
scrutiny from New Delhi.
    
    GREAT WALL MOTOR INVESTMENT PLAN
    Great Wall Motor  601633.SS  shelved plans last year to
invest $1 billion in India and laid off all employees at its
operations there after failing to obtain regulatory approvals.
    
    XIAOMI ASSET FREEZE
    India's federal financial crime agency has frozen $670
million of Xiaomi's  1810.HK  bank assets since last year,
posing a significant challenge to the smartphone maker. The
agency alleges that Xiaomi made illegal remittances to foreign
entities in the name of royalties. The company denies
wrongdoing.
    
    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 .
    
    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 3 years.

 (Reporting by Aftab Ahmed
Editing by William Mallard and Helen Popper)
 ((Aftab.Ahmed@thomsonreuters.com; +91 99109 33884; Reuters
Messaging: twitter: @aftabahmed00))