BEIJING: Calls for boycott of Chinese goods in India following China's opposition to a UN ban on JeM chief Masood Azhar have failed as sales of Chinese products in the country hit a record high during the festive season, official media here said today.
"Diwali, one of the most important Hindu festivals and one of the biggest shopping seasons in India, is coming at the end of October, but encouragement to boycott Chinese goods has been spreading in the last few days on Indian social media, and even a few Indian politicians are exaggerating facts," an article in the state-run Global Times said.
"However, regardless of the passionate boycott in India and Indian media's hysteric reports of a "doomsday" for Chinese products, Chinese goods have never been condemned by Indian government and are popular across the nation," it said.
"The boycott has not achieved success. Sales figures for Chinese products on the top three Indian online retailers in the first week of October hit a new record. Amazingly, the Chinese mobile phone company Xiaomi sold half a million phones in just three days on the Flipkart, Amazon India, Snapdeal and Tata CLiQ platforms," the article said.
Referring to the boycott calls over China's technical hold on moves to bring about a ban on Azhar as well Beijing obstructing India's membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group, (NSG), it said.
"Chinese products are often the victim when regional situations get tense, and this phenomenon has been existing for quite a few years. Now Chinese goods are on the stage again due to the Kashmir issue," it said.
"The bilateral trade relationship is one of the pillars of the Sino-Indian relationship. The trade volume was over USD 70 billion in 2015, and China's investment in India soared to around USD 870 million in 2015, six times what it was in 2014," it said.
India has been expressing concern over the trade deficit which last year touched USD 46 billion.
"To some extent, the economic relationship is the barometer of the political relationship. There shouldn't be huge fluctuation in terms of economic cooperation if the political relationship keeps steady between the two," it said.
"For the dragon and elephant, enhancing economic ties would be a preferable way to promote the comprehensive bilateral relationship. The more economic cooperation exists, the more opportunities there will be for Chinese products to enter the Indian market.
"India is a big potential market, and people using smartphones and doing online shopping has become the irreversible trend in the new era," it said.
The commercial cooperation between these two countries could also be focused on e-commerce, service and financial investment.
Source: Economictimes.indiatimes.com
