The Chinese are making huge investments into the India tech sector. Is there cause for concern?
About the author: Benjamin Polsky is a master’s student with FSI’s Ford Dorsey Master’s in International Policy program. He is spending his summer working at Carnegie India in New Delhi as a Visiting Graduate Research Analyst with funding from FSI.
The rapid digitalization in the two most populous nations has led to enhanced trade and investment linkages. By one account, Alibaba and Tencent, two of China’s tech giants, have invested close to $3 billion in various Indian start-ups. The investments paid off. Of the 100 most popular Android apps used in India, 44 were Chinese, including five in the top ten, such as the now popular video-sharing platform Tiktok and UC Browser. Among start up founders and entrepreneurs, Chinese investment is coveted for those who do not have it and critical for those who do. In other circles, however, critics are beginning to ring the alarm bells citing concerns over what Chinese investment can buy in the form of influence, data extraction and intelligence gathering.
On July 12th, in partnership with the Omidyar Network and Esya Centre, I moderated a panel discussion on the implications of China’s investment in India’s technology sector. On the panel was Malavika Jayaram, the inaugural Executive Director of Digital Asia Hub; Jyoti Malhotra, the National & Strategic Affairs Editor at The Print; Ajay Shah, professor at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy; Berges Malu, the Head of Public Policy and Policy Communications at ShareChat, India’s largest exclusively Indic language social media platform. Over the course of an hour, we tried to tease out whether or not India had any cause for concern, the true value of Chinese investment, and what should be done in the case of proven nefarious intent.
As is the case with most good panels, the discussion prompted more questions than answers. The key question: was a double standard being applied to Chinese investments? The discussants were wary of calling out China specifically for the kinds of violations and risks associated with all investment. Others involved in the conversation answered in the affirmative, but for good reason, they argued. The US is far from perfect, but at the end of the day, it is still a preferable partner to China. In the US, infractions and mistakes are eventually exposed. There was no such guarantee in China.
In India, the tenor and nature of the Chinese tech conversation is very different than in Silicon Valley. The jury is still out about Chinese tech investment in India. Instead of figuring out how to curb Chinese influence, many in India are trying to figure out what lessons India can learn from Chinese techno-diplomacy.
