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Opinion | India takes aim at China with tighter FDI rules, showing limits of its coronavirus aid diplomacy
- Chinese state firms want to pick up stakes in India’s financial services sector as valuations fall due to the pandemic
- But medical supplies donated by Chinese firms that were found to be faulty and some groups blaming China for the coronavirus outbreak have only fuelled anti-Chinese sentiment
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India, which is under an extended nationwide lockdown to control the spread of the coronavirus, has been at the receiving end of alms from China.
Since the last week of March, Chinese enterprises have started to make donations of personal protective equipment (PPE) to India after Ji Rong, the spokesperson of the Chinese embassy in New Delhi, expressed solidarity with the neighbouring country. He also said mainland companies would be ready to provide further help to the best of their capability in light of the needs of the Indian side.
The Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation have donated two sets of consignments, which include protective suits, masks, respirators and ventilators to the Indian Red Cross Society. The two foundations have included India in a list of seven countries that will receive a total of 1.7 million face masks, 165,000 test kits, ventilators, forehead thermometers and protective clothing.
Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
Smartphone makers Xiaomi and Vivo have also contributed N95 masks and protective suits to state governments, hospitals and police forces. Popular short-video app TikTok donated medical supplies worth more than US$13 million to the government. Chinese telecom giant Huawei has even offered India the technologies that it deployed in Hubei province to curb and monitor the spread of Covid-19, including live streaming, remote collaboration, remote temperature measurement, diagnosis and treatment.
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