China has expressed serious concerns over India's expanded ban on Chinese apps as tensions between the neighboring countries refuse to abate. China's Ministry of Commerce said Thursday that it hopes India would treat every company, including Chinese companies, fairly and without discrimination.
The statement was made after India added 54 mobile apps to its ban list this week. Commerce ministry spokesperson Gao Feng said India should take concrete measures to ensure continued "bilateral economic and trade cooperation."
India has remained firm in its campaign to remove Chinese apps from the country, which it has deemed threats to its national security. Tensions between the two countries erupted in 2020 following several deadly border clashes. India retaliated by implementing economic measures, including the boycott of Chinese products and mobile apps.
As of today, India has banned a total of 321 apps, including popular platforms such as ByteDance-owned short-video streaming service TikTok.
India claims that the apps are a threat to its national security as user data is being stored in servers located in China. Indian officials said China could use that data against it by mining, collating, analyzing, and profiling individual users or groups, which would threaten the country's sovereignty and integrity.
Among the 54 mobile apps that were banned was the popular Free Fire mobile game developed by Singapore-based company Sea Ltd. Chinese gaming company Tencent currently owns an 18.7% stake in the mobile video game developer. Tencent has repeatedly denied India's claims that it stores user data in China, adding that it complies with all Indian laws.
Following the ban of its best-selling mobile game, Sea's U.S.-listed share price plunged by more than 18.4%. The dip wiped out more than $16 billion from the company's market value. Investors such as Cathie Wood's ARK were quick to take advantage of the situation and bought massive amounts of stocks during the dip.
The restriction is bad news for Sea, whose e-commerce software Shopee is already being boycotted by Indian traders who accuse it of methods that harm offline retailers. The Confederation of All India Traders said it fully expected Shopee to have been included in the ban list.
Analysts said the banning of Sea's Free Fire title in India could severely impact the company's prospects as it would limit its ability to bankroll the expansion of its other apps. The banning of its flagship game is estimated to cost the company between $78 million and $104 million every quarter in income, and it's tough to rule out the prospect of a similar ban on Shopee in the coming months.
