Tuesday was an unfortunate day for India as it lost many soldiers in a clash with China in Ladakh. Chinese and Indian troops have been locked in hostile posturing at multiple locations in the Himalayan region and following this Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called out his fellow citizens to reduce India's dependence on imports and become aatmanirbhar or self-reliant.
Yesterday a national news broadcast channel was promoting the 'Boycott China' campaign where the show was powered by a Chinese smartphone company.
Though this must have been a coincidence but following the standoff in Ladakh, many Indians were calling for a boycott of Chinese products, including apps like TikTok.
On May 9, the strained stance between the two countries surfaced at Sikkim. The next day it was officially informed that on May 6, some clashes had taken place near Pangong Tso Lake area in eastern Ladakh. Both the countries then showed their military prowess in the region with helicopters and fighters doing sorties.
Both countries had held talks on June 6 to resolve the tension. New Delhi finally stated that both sides have agreed to resolve the matter peacefully describing the meeting between India and China as 'cordial and positive atmosphere'.
Beijing followed New Delhi's footsteps and had affirmed that the situation at the border areas was 'generally stable' and 'under control'.
Recently, Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh had also urged fellow Indians to give up Chinese goods and called for a complete ban on Chinese products.
When Modi called for the Aatmnirbhar campaign, the boycott China campaign was renewed in India as Indian media platforms took to berate the "dragon".
China was already in the line of fire with coronavirus cases first reported from Wuhan and the standoff between India and China has flared up the situation. It should be noted that 'Remove China Apps' app, which was released on May 17, had already garnered massive support and in less than two weeks, it had crossed one million downloads.
