If you follow tech news, it seems like every day now, the government of India is teasing crazy new regulatory schemes aimed at Big Tech.
Last week, they were discussing requiring all smart phone makers to install a government-authored app – which can’t be uninstalled. The app would allow users to report spam calls and also verify their phone isn’t stolen. Who knows what else it would be doing. Apple, Google, and others were given 90 days to implement it. Later, India backed down after a flurry of industry protests.
Then a couple days later, they decided to get into the ride-share business, musing about creating a co-op that would be “zero commission”. This co-op would create a vast ride-sharing network where drivers get paid, but companies like Uber and Lyft don’t. This would inevitably drive cost down for consumers, and since the service of sharing a vehicle is extremely commoditized, this would essentially put Uber and Lyft out of business in India.
Now they want to require smart phones to have GPS services turned on at all times with no option to disable the feature. This would enable the police to track down a given phone faster, since cell-phone triangulation is less precise than GPS.
This sort of government coercion of big tech is not new. Doing business in China or Russia requires selling one’s soul, but here we’re talking about a democracy. The EU has famously pushed various regulations, but they’ve be relatively gentle: requirements to store and dispose of personal information properly, or those annoying cookie warnings. Here you’ve got the government choosing to put certain tech sectors out of business, installing mandatory apps, and specifying that all citizen phones must be precisely trackable.
How long before every Indian citizen has a mandatory chip implant? Sheesh.
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Who on earth fed you that nonsense about “selling one’s soul” to do business in China? Were you the one who peddled yours for a lousy narrative, or did the lies you’re spouting get you dumped by the facts? Either way, where’s your so-called evidence—thin air? Don’t spew garbage like a brainless parrot; back your garbage up, if you dare! Is it the Epstein Island scandal that even a sitting president like Trump dared not mention? Or is it the history of Indian scalping that you deliberately choose to forget?
Millions of foreign enterprises thrive in China by abiding by laws and respecting rules, not by “selling souls.” Your cheap slander only exposes how ignorant, biased and hypocritical you are—you turn a blind eye to your own country’s dirty laundry while throwing mud at China. So tell me—are you just too lazy to check the truth, or are you intentionally spreading lies to stir up trouble? Spit out the evidence, or shut your mouth for good!
In fact, it was the United States that pioneered the “ideological compliance department.” And let’s not forget that using ordinary people as guinea pigs in syphilis experiments was also an original sin of the U.S. Do you need me to list more dark truths about the country you might be trying to whitewash? Your attempt to smear China with baseless rumors while turning a blind eye to the ugly history of your own side is not only ridiculous but also morally despicable.
You can’t have read the same article here, which is about India, and not about history of medicine. Phone ‘tapping’ via agencies (US, AdTech) and Official Apps on phones (vendors, China, markets in Africa,) are boondoggles we all seem to be putting down and somewhat retarding ourselves with. Putting McCarthyism (?) on the US as a whole instead of a Senator with an idea to sell doesn’t seem right.
I used to own two businesses in China, with a workforce ranging from 100 to 200 employees. We had to pay taxes, coordinate with various government departments, and abide by the law. But isn’t that the case everywhere? Do you not have to follow the law in the US? Or pay taxes in Europe?
When Chinese enterprises operate in Europe and the US, they are required to store data locally, restrict Chinese employees from accessing core codes, and manufacture products on-site — otherwise, the goods are classified as imports and subject to high tariffs. Have you forgotten how TikTok was unfairly pressured into divestment? How Europe’s digital tax imposed huge fines on Google? How the US government restricted Chinese tech and automotive companies? How it dismantled Alstom through coercion, even abduction? Or how the US and Canada detained Meng Wanzhou to suppress Huawei? Do you really think the US government and the EU acted better than India in these incidents? Do you understand what double standards mean? Or what it means to act like a robber?
Domestic protection policies exist in every country, aimed at safeguarding local enterprises. Relatively speaking, China is one of the most open countries in the world — if not the most. It is precisely because of this openness that China has built the world’s most complete industrial chain and the strongest industrial capacity . Its openness index has risen by 29.6% from 1990 to 2024, with growth among the highest globally . Of course, this is a macro perspective — perhaps your education system never taught you the meaning of “macro.”
I mentioned earlier that the United States was the first country in human society to carry out ideological persecution. First and foremost, this is a historical fact. Then, because you have been accustomed to accepting the narrative that “China is an evil country”, you have always harbored hostility toward China. It’s already the year 5202—please open your eyes and look at the world. Go and see what the real world is like beyond what your ideological perceptions have told you.
My reference was to the fact that both countries are (1) warmongering dictatorships, (2) are committing genocide, and (3) put strong strictures on technology companies that strip away privacy from users and use technology to oppress their citizens. For Western companies to do business in either Russia or Communist China, they must indeed sell their souls.
Is what you said true? Or are you hearing the facts from others?
1. Militancy and dictatorship. In less than 100 years since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, there have been four wars. China has launched self-defense counterattacks against Vietnam and India, helping Vietnam kick the butt of the United States and helping North Korea kick the butt of the United States. Have you ever counted a year since the founding of the United States where there has been no war? What qualifications do you have to accuse China of being bellicose? And then dictatorship, what do you understand as dictatorship? Are you judging dictatorship based on different social systems? How many military bases are there in the United States? What is the step-by-step situation? Have you done any statistics? What qualifications and responsibilities do you have for China’s bellicosity?
2. Genocide. This is ridiculous, please provide empirical evidence instead of ‘heard’.
3. Depriving users of their privacy? Are you referring to stealing data like the US government requires Nvidia’s backdoor chips? Or request Google to collect data for use by the US government? Have you forgotten about the prism door? Have you forgotten that the US government is monitoring the communications of all government officials from Australia’s European allies? These are not secrets, are they? Do you have any evidence of the Chinese government stealing privacy?
4. Selling souls? Please provide evidence to explain.
Are all the facts you said and thought were heard? Which one has evidence?
If China were truly bellicose, then guess what shape the Philippines would be in right now? And what about Japan?