Feasibility of #boycottchina

After the outbreak of Corona virus and amid rising tensions over disputed border territories, a voice for a ban on Chinese originated products seems to be rising. People now have started getting rid of some Chinese software and apps. However, the fact that right from basic and simple products like nail-cutters or toys, to the highly technical products such as bullet train projects we are mostly dependent on China, got unnoticed for many years.

At this moment, China is the largest producer and exporter of automobiles, electricity, renewable energy, steel, textile, agricultural products, cement, mobiles, computers, and many more. In near future, it seems so difficult to shun the use of ‘Made in China’ products without well-determined efforts. Even in many companies in the rest of the world, China has made significant investments. Well-known international brands like Motorola, Volvo, Hoover, Hamleys are taken over by Chinese companies. Chinese investment is estimated at 4 billion USD in Indian tech start-ups. At least 18 out of India’s top 30 unicorn start-ups are now backed by Chinese investors; Big Basket, BYJU, Paytm, Oyo, Zomato, Swiggy, Snapdeal, PolicyBazzar to name but a few. 50% of the apps downloaded in India have direct or indirect Chinese investments. 20% auto components, 70% electric components, 45% consumer durables, 70% active pharma ingredients, and 40% of leather goods are imported from China. Heavy engineering turnkey project like ‘Delhi-Meerut Metro Contract’ is also bagged by the ‘Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Company’ against Indian EPC giants L&T and Tata Projects. 

So, will it really help us to uninstall some apps or to ban the use of some China-made products? The long-lasting solution could be developing our economy from the grassroots and becoming Atmanirbhar. Hon. Prime minister has already declared this campaign but unfortunately, people are still not fully aware of the right steps to achieve this goal. 

 Let’s look in the past, around 50 years back when China started a similar campaign. In 1960 economies of India and China were almost in the same condition. However, at present China’s economy has reached the mark of 14.2 trillion USD while India is still lingering at 2.94 trillion USD. Like every developed nation, China’s industrial revolution can be divided into 3 major milestones.

Proto-industrialization (1978-1988):

During this period, sprouting millions of rural enterprises across small towns of China acted as an engine of national economic growth. Irrigation, electricity, and road infrastructure system built before 1978 under Mao’s collective farming era led to an unprecedented agricultural productivity boom in China in the early years of the reform after 1978. The Chinese Government played an important role in encouraging commerce and merchant activities especially in the countryside as well as subsidizing and directly participating in them using all sorts of government resources.

First Industrial Revolution (1988-1998):

This phase featured mass production of labor-intensive light consumer goods and China became the largest exporter of textiles, furniture, toys, etc.

Second Industrial Revolution: (1998-2018):

Mass production of ‘means of mass production’ started in China. China witnessed a big surge in consumption and production of coal, chemicals, steel, cement, machine tools, etc. 2.6 million miles of public roads, 70,000 miles of express highways (46% more than the US) and 10,000 miles of high-speed railroads were built which proved conducive in a proliferation of MSMEs across the country.

All developed nations have gone through these steps although, the time taken to walk this path is different. European countries and the United States took almost a century to cross these milestones while China has done it in just 35 years. All these countries adopted a bottom-top approach i.e. starting from micro-enterprises to state-of-the-art complex technologies. However, in India, we have seen different pictures. The government is rolling out the red carpet for heavily mechanized foreign companies with intention of huge employment generation. On the other hand, 17% of rural households still lack electricity, around 30% of Indian villages do not have tar roads, 20% of children are still deprived of secondary education, many villages still don’t have well equipped primary healthcare. India’s richest 1% population holds 42% of national wealth while the bottom 50% owns a mere 2.8%. So, such foreign investors will require a highly educated workforce to cater their requirements which in turn will result in widening this economic inequality gap.

In essence, instead of just boycotting Chinese products, we must learn from our neighbour. To become Atmanirbhar, the sustainable solution would be the development of agro-based labour-intensive businesses, building transportation infrastructure to connect rural India, providing basic facilities like electricity, education, healthcare to the poor, endorsing the MSMEs and decentralization of industries. This bottom-top development approach will strengthen the roots of the economy and will lay strong platform for robust industrial and economic growth like other developed nations.

(This article comprises my personal views.)