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India Bans 118 More Chinese Apps, Including PUBG

In June, India had banned 59 Chinese apps including TikTok, CamScanner and UC Browser, citing security concerns.
A boy playing PUBG on his smartphone.
SOPA Images via Getty Images
A boy playing PUBG on his smartphone.

India on Wednesday banned 118 more Chinese apps, including PUBG, amid rising tensions between the two countries. On Tuesday, India had said that China again engaged in “provocative action” along the Line of Actual Control.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, in a press release, said that the apps are “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India”. It added that the ministry has received many complaints from various sources, including several reports about misuse of some mobile apps available on Android and iOS platforms, for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorised manner to servers which have locations outside India.

India had in June banned 59 Chinese apps including TikTok, CamScanner and UC Browser, citing security concerns. It later banned 47 more apps, which were clones of the 59 Chinese apps.

The government’s decision to ban the 59 apps had come after the violent face-off in Galwan between Indian and Chinese troops on 15 June. 20 Indian soldiers were killed in the clash.

Tensions between India and China have been rising with both the countries accusing each other of attempting to change the status quo in Ladakh. External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava on Tuesday said that the Chinese side engaged in provocative military manoeuvres in the late night of 29 and on 30 August in an attempt to change the status quo in the South Bank area of Pangong Lake.

“Furthermore, yesterday on 31st August, even as the ground commanders of the two sides were in discussions to de-escalate the situation, the Chinese troops again engaged in provocative action. Due to the timely defensive action, the Indian side was able to prevent these attempts to unilaterally alter the status quo,” he added.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying while responding to a question at a media briefing on why there were mutual allegations of provocative moves, said, “The Indian side’s statements may be different from the Chinese (side) but there is only one truth and fact.”

“Perhaps there are some communication issues. I think both sides should stick to facts and have goodwill to maintain the overall bilateral relations and take concrete measures to jointly safeguard peace and tranquility along the border,” she added, according to PTI.

Hua said that in “70 odd years since the founding of new China, China never provoked any war or conflict and never occupied an inch of other country’s territory,” skirting any reference to the 1962 border war with India.

(With PTI inputs)

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.