Chinese phone companies are taking to social media to reiterate their commitment to India

An anti-China sentiment has been steadily growing across the country thanks to the pandemic and it has now reached a peak of sorts due to the recent Indo-China clashes at the LAC where 20 India soldiers lost their lives.

One of the first people to face the brunt of this have been the Chinese phone companies like Realme and Xiaomi. While both of these companies have a significant user base in India, they have been categorically attacked online with people making declarations of boycotting Chinese products and apps.

Companies like Realme have now taken to social media to reach to people and reestablish their commitment to the country. Realme is owned by Chinese company BBK that also owns OnePlus, Oppo and Vivo.

Realme’s India CEO Madhav Sheth said on the company’s YouTube series AskMadhav that Realme is one of the global multinational companies that started from India. “I can proudly say that Realme is an Indian startup,” Sheth said in the video.

Poco, which used to be an offshoot of Xiaomi, tweeted about their Make In India initiative earlier this month along with a video celebrating the country.

“With a dream of serving Indian consumers, @IndiaPoco was born 2 years ago in Delhi, India," Poco tweeted pushing the whole “crafted in India” for India philosophy.

Sheth also mentioned in his video that Realme sources 60% of its components from local suppliers and that India counts for over 50% of its global sales. He also spoke about increasing the workforce in its plants here to 10,000 by the end of 2020.

Xiaomi India head, Manu Jain, mentioned during their latest launch that 99% of Xiaomi’s phones are made in India, as are most of its Smart TVs. Xiaomi is currently the leader in the Indian smartphone space.

With India and China clashing at the border, this anti-China sentiment is just expected to grow in the country. Even before the recent military conflict, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) had announced a national campaign to boycott Chinese goods on June 10. CAIT is the apex trade body in India and they represent seven crore traders and over 40,000 trade associations.

The country-wide call to boycott all things Chinese is not just restricted to phones and TVs. India’s intelligence agencies have put 52 apps linked to China under scrutiny and have asked people to refrain from using them due to security concerns. Also, just a few weeks ago an app called ‘Remove China Apps’ got very popular for doing exactly what the name claims, remove Chinese apps from your smartphone, before Google pulled it off the Play Store. 

While the phone companies try to fend off attacks on social media, industry experts have pointed out that companies here cannot ignore the fact that they are dependent on China. 

Four out of the top five smartphone brands in the country are Chinese, and out of them two have also stepped into the TV space. The Indian government’s Vocal for Local agenda is great but there is a lot of groundwork that needs to be done to make that a reality.

Chairman of the India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) Pankaj Mohindroo said in a statement that it’s no secret that a huge part of India’s supply chain for mobile phones is rooted in China. He pointed out that efforts are being made to push for self-dependency in the country but in the meanwhile one must “remain confident that the Indian and Chinese leadership will find a lasting resolution out of the current border impasse”.

Mohindroo also paid homage to the martyred soldiers in his statement adding that the ICEA is hopeful of peace without India having to compromise on its strategic priorities.