Daring the Dragon

New Delhi’s decision to procure telecom equipment only from ‘trusted sources’ is an important step in checking belligerent Beijing

It is time for India to escalate the costs of border misadventures for China and hit the belligerent neighbour where it hurts the most— economy. New Delhi’s decision to procure telecom equipment only from ‘trusted sources’ may well be an important step in this direction. Though the new policy does not explicitly mention Chinese companies like Huawei and ZTE, it is clear that they would face the heat with the implementation of National Security Directive on Telecommunication, which has been framed keeping in mind the imperatives of national security. Under this, the telecom service providers are required to install only those new devices that are designated as trusted products. The methodology to designate such trusted sources will be devised by the National Cyber Security Coordinator. The new policy must be seen as a direct fallout of China’s border incursions in the Ladakh region. Driven by concerns such as spyware or malicious software being embedded in the imported equipment, India has, in recent months, banned the import of equipment from China for use in sectors ranging from telecom to power citing national security reasons. It took a long time for India to realise the folly of a soft approach towards Beijing. In fact, it gave the neighbouring country a long rope despite the latter’s hostile intentions. In 2015 itself, India had given security clearance to Huawei to set up a manufacturing unit in India. Despite the Doklam stand-off, New Delhi continued to welcome Huawei into the 5G race, notwithstanding pressure from the US.

Brushing aside multiple security concerns raised by every single security agency, the NDA government had decided to allow Huawei Technologies to take part in the 5G trials in India. This was despite the defence services raising the red flag and arguing that the Chinese 5G services could compromise the entire command and communication structure of the Indian military. It only shows that Beijing was given too long a rope in the interest of boosting trade relations. However, the back-stabbing by the Chinese in Ladakh in May this year has changed the entire dynamics. Tensions continue to simmer in the Galwan Valley. A resolute response on the border, coupled with strong economic measures, has sent across a message that India is no pushover and that it will be firm in all fields, including defence, even as it seeks friendly relations with Beijing. While there is no doubt that India should be firm in handling China and reducing its dependence on Chinese products, it must be pointed out that building local technical capabilities is not an easy task as the country faces challenges in not only the hardware sector but also has relatively weak network construction capabilities compared with China.

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