Studied silence on harm being done by China to nation’s economic prosperity: Congress

Asserting that uncontrolled imports from China are "wreaking havoc" domestically, the Congress on Wednesday, 4 September accused the government of maintaining a "studied silence" and "inaction" on the harm being done by China to the nation's territorial integrity and economic prosperity.

Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh alleged that the Indian government's response to uncontrolled Chinese imports and dumping has been "scatter-brained".

His remarks came over think tank GTRI's report which said that imports of goods like umbrellas, musical items from China is hurting Indian MSMEs.

"Every day brings new information on the growing reliance of the so-called aatmanirbhar Indian economy on Chinese imports. Today we learnt that nearly 96% of our country’s umbrellas and over 50% of musical instruments and toys sold in India are of Chinese origin," Ramesh said in a post on X.

In key industries like electronic components, India's imports from China have grown nearly nine-fold, from USD 1.4 billion in 2016-17 to USD 12.1 billion in 2023-2024, he said.

India's imports of active pharmaceutical ingredients and drug components doubled in this period from USD 1.6 billion to USD 3.3 billion, Ramesh said.

Across the world, governments are taking strong corrective action against uncontrolled Chinese imports through tariffs and anti-dumping investigations, Ramesh pointed out.

"Governments are pursuing integrated economic strategies to prioritise 'decoupling' from China rather than risk being economically beholden to it. The Indian government, despite the looming national security threat of Chinese soldiers on our borders and within our territory, has been scatter-brained in its response. TikTok has been banned, but imports are surging," he said.

"Uncontrolled imports from China are wreaking havoc domestically. For instance, almost 30-35 per cent of India’s stainless steel MSMEs in the non-biological PM's home state of Gujarat have had to shut down between July and September 2023 due to the heavy influx of cheaper Chinese imports," the Congress leader said and noted that Gujarat represents 80 per cent of the MSMEs in the sector.

This decimation of a crucial domestic industry like steel is both an economic challenge and a national security threat, Ramesh said.

"India’s manufacturing base has been shrinking – as percentage of GDP, it has fallen from 16.5% to 14.5% over the past decade. As the World Bank noted in its recent India Development Update, labour-intensive manufacturing has been particularly sluggish," he said.

India's share in global exports of labour-intensive apparel, leather, textiles, and footwear (ALTF) initially grew from 0.9 percent in 2002 to a peak of 4.5 percent in 2013, but it subsequently declined to 3.5 percent in 2022, Ramesh said.

"At a time when manufacturing is becoming a priority globally and hardware production has become key to emerging sectors such as AI and clean energy, India stands out in its inability to drive increased manufacturing onshore. Instead, our existing manufacturing is being hollowed out by uncontrolled imports from China," he alleged.

"The non-biological PM's 'clean chit' to China on June 19, 2020, was a sign of what was to come: a studied silence and inaction on the harm being done by China to the nation’s territorial integrity and economic prosperity," Ramesh said.