By Mark T Connor • 19 June 2020 • 13:43
Indian Border Security Force soldiers guard a highway leading towards Leh, bordering China, in Gagangir on 17 June 2020. © Habib Naqash
THE Indian National Railway have joined the campaign, scrapping a 2016 signalling contract with a Beijing-based firm.
The government has ordered a state-run telecom utility and other private companies to procure locally-built equipment instead of using Chinese firms, as the border clash took a bizarre turn with Indian citizens smashing household goods with ‘made in China’ tags.
The decisions will affect business worth almost €8.9 billion, Indian officials said.
Late Monday, Chinese and Indian soldiers fought for hours with fists and spiked clubs in Galwan Valley, which lies between China’s Tibet and India’s Ladakh, with some reportedly falling off cliffs into a river.
At least 20 Indian troops died, with Delhi saying there were also Chinese casualties. It’s the deadliest clash between the neighbours in almost 60 years.
Each side accused the other of cross-border intrusions.
Monday’s incident was the worst clash since similar skirmishes in 1967, which came five years after China gave India a bloody nose in a brief but brutal war. Delhi then accused China of occupying 38,000 square kilometres of territory in Aksai Chin.
The Communist state still claims 90,000 square km in the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.
The campaign to boycott Beijing has drawn Bollywood actors such as Milind Soman and Arshad Warsi to the campaign, calling for Indians to delete their accounts on the short video app Tiktok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance.
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