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Boycott China' trending online but little impact on consumer products sales
Calls for boycott of Chinese products amid Sino-India border tension may be trending on social media but these are yet to impact sales of smartphone and consumer durables products from the stables of companies like Xiaomi, Realme and Haier, according to industry executives.
While companies declined to comment on the issue, senior executives at many of these Chinese firms said there has been no impact on sales yet.
One of the senior leaders at a smartphone company, who did not wish to be named, said there is pent up demand for phones because people are working and studying from home amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and many firms have had to resort to expensive imports to meet the spurt in demand.
Another executive said Chinese firms are keeping a close watch on the developments, and monitoring the situation on the ground as well as on social media.
On Twitter, topics like 'Boycott China', 'Go China' and 'Go Chinese Go' were trending as killing of 20 Indian soldiers in a violent clash with the Chinese army in Ladakh's Galwan Valley stirred anti-China sentiment among people.
Chinese firm's contract to be terminated for 'poor progress'; Rly PSU denies link to border face-off
The Railways has decided to terminate the contract of a Chinese company due to "poor progress" on the signalling and telecommunication work on the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor's 417-km section between Kanpur and Mughalsarai.
The Railways had given the contract worth Rs 471 crore to Beijing National Railway Research and Design Institute of Signal and Communication Group in 2016.
The move comes after 20 Indian Army personnel including a colonel were killed in a fierce clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in over five decades that has significantly escalated the already volatile border standoff in the region.
However, the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation Limited (DFCCIL), the implementing agency of the project, made it clear that there was no link between the border face-off and the contract's termination, the process for which had started as early as January 2019.
Officials said the Chinese firm was supposed to complete the work by 2019, but only 20 percent of the work has been completed so far.
"We were in discussion with the World Bank on the issue since January this year as their progress was very slow. We approached them in April telling them of our decision to terminate the contract. We have decided to terminate the contract and if the World Bank disagrees, then we will approach the Railways to fund the section.
"There is no link between the termination of this contract and what is happening at the borders. It is purely coincidental," said Anurag Sachan, Managing Director, DFCCIL.
Sachan said 60 percent of the track linking work (being done by another contractor) on the section has been completed and the delay in completion was because the Chinese firm did not do their part of the work.
Why orders 'weren't given to fire at Chinese' in Galwan, asks Amarinder
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Thursday asked "why no orders to fire at the Chinese were given" in the face of the brutal attack on Indian soldiers in Ladakh's Galwan Valley and said "somebody failed to do his job out there".
"What were they doing sitting out there while their colleagues were getting killed," he said in an official statement.
If the unit was armed, as is being claimed now, the second-in-command should have ordered firing the moment the commanding officer fell to the Chinese treachery, said Amarinder Singh.
"The nation wants to know why our men did not retaliate in the way they are trained to do, and why they did not open fire if they were carrying arms," the Punjab CM added.
Siliguri's famed Hong Kong Market to be renamed?
Traders in Siliguri's famed Hong Kong Market, known for selling Chinese goods, said they were planning to change the name of the market and boycott products from the neighbouring country.
"We are planning to change the name of the Hong Kong Market. Some of the shop owners believe that they should stop selling Chinese products and rather sell locally-made goods," a member of the market association said.
(PTI report)
