Beijing Expresses Concern over India Banning Chinese Apps

Commerce Ministry's Spokesman Gao Feng called on India to "correct its mistakes", after the Indian government banned 118 mobile apps from operating in the country, citing national security reasons, Sputnik reported.

This was the fourth round of India’s app-ban move with the total number of banned Chinese apps reaching 233.

The applications banned by the Indian authorities include the popular mobile game PUBG, the Weiyun cloud-based storage service, and the WeChat Work platform, which are all operated by Tencent.

Alibaba’s digital payments service Alipay is also affected, as well as services offered by Baidu and Sina.

The latest ban came after an altercation this past weekend on the border between China and India.

The first wave of bans was announced on June 29, when the Indian authorities decided to block 59 Chinese apps, including the video-sharing platform TikTok. A month later, the country issued a ban on 47 more Chinese-developed apps, such as Baidu Search and Weibo.

The two countries clashed this past June in the Galwan Valley, where the Indian region of Ladakh borders China’s Aksai Chin region, in a confrontation that left 20 Indian servicemen dead. The Chinese side didn't specify the exact number of casualties.