Invoking Rabindranath Tagore and yoga, China on Thursday criticised India’s ban on 118 Chinese mobile apps and warned New Delhi against joining the US’s “clean network” programme.
According to a report in Hindustan Times, China’s spokesperson Hua Chunying, reciting a line from a Tagore poem, said: “”We read the world wrong, and say that it deceives us.”
Hua said Tagore and yoga were both popular in China, but that Beijing did not consider them a threat, unlike India that considers things of Chinese origin a threat.
“As I said both are ancient civilisations with splendid cultures that we are proud of, and the exchange between the two sides have been going on for thousands of years. Also, yoga is becoming more and more popular in China; including myself, I am very fond of Indian culture. But we do not think that Indian culture or the poems or other things are infiltrating here or are posing any threat to Chinese culture,” said Hua.
“What we believe is that the intermingling of different cultures is conducive to promoting people’s mutual understanding and friendship,” she added.
Hua also subtly warned India over its ties with the US, wondering if the ban in India had any relation with Washington’s initiative.
“I have noted that the US state department on the same day said that India banned more than 100 Chinese apps and called on other countries to join India to roll out the clean network initiative,” she said.
“So, I don’t know if there is any correlation or interaction between India and the US. But India is an ancient civilisation with wise people. They should know what the US has done in Cyber Security for example Dirtbox, Prism, Irritant Horn, Muscular and under-sea cable tapping. Indian people must have the wisdom to tell whether the US practice on cyber security is clean or dirty,” she said. “We hope India could stay committed to its precious independence decision making.”
The response came a day after India banned 118 mobile apps with Chinese links, including popular game PUBG, citing data privacy concerns and a threat to national security. This takes the total count of Chinese-linked mobile apps banned by India to 224.
The 118 apps banned on Wednesday include Baidu, Baidu Express Edition, Alipay, Tencent Watchlist, FaceU, WeChat reading, Government WeChat, Tencent Weiyun, APUS Launcher Pro, APUS Security, Cut Cut, ShareSave by Xiaomi, and CamCard, besides PUBG Mobile and PUBG Mobile Lite.
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