Thats your perspective from chinese perspective they have been doing this since a long time and they except india to back down as in the past , thats why this standoff is going this long. In the end we will just back down. although i do agree this govt. has more guts but banning apps is meaningless gesture. the govt. should seriously consider banning all the imports from china . there is no need to give them billions of dollars every year.
but banning apps is meaningless gesture. the govt. should seriously consider banning all the imports from china
Very myopic view of the situation. It's the same as saying beating thaali does not prevent corona, govt. should take concrete steps, Modi is doing jumlebaazi (and he must regine).
Let me show you a broader picture.
Before the stand-off started, it was presumed that India and China had a non-hostile relationship. Border disputes were there but nothing flared into even close to point of no return. China was a huge trade partner, and China was pushing a lot of FDI into India (which indirectly helped to grow our economy).
Now, after the clashes happened and it was realized Chinese were really determined to pick a fight, it was decided to cut loose and de-couple from the Chinese economy, so that in future conflict they cannot arm-twist us.
The first wave of decoupling and escaping from Chinese clutches was banning social-media apps that were used by the Chinese for snooping and collecting personal data. Many apps can straight-up record your location, contacts, pictures etc, which can act as a powerful tool to collect intelligence.
So no, it was not a gesture, but a national security risk.
Now, coming to banning
all imports. Easier said than done. The cloth you wear has yarn imported from China. The medicine you take is made from raw material acquired from China. The phone/internet connection you are using to post, use Chinese components. The list goes on and on.
So why all these materials acquired from China? Govt. has sold the economy to China, reeee.....
Because it is simply cheaper to import from China than to make in-house. And when you go to the market to buy a shirt, medicine or mobile phone, you choose the one cheaper and of higher quality. No one cares if it is made in India, Bangladesh, or China.
But can
ONLY china make these? No, but Chinese ones are just cheaper. So to change our supply routes, or manufacture these components in-house, you need
time.
And that is why we have not completely banned our imports. We need time to completely decouple our economy from China.