“China has made significant inroads into numerous Indian sectors in recent years” says the Law and Society Alliance in their report entitled Mapping Chinese Footprints and Influence Operations in India. According to the report the Chinese infiltration takes place “subtly” in the form of “financial investments, fellowships, travel courtesies and coercion.” Chinese propaganda is spread, they say, through India’s compromised entertainment industry, think tanks and Confucius Institutes.
China, referred to in the report as a “manipulative adversary”, has allegedly been targeting “the bright impressionable minds, the tech savvy youth, the opinion makers and the intelligentsia present in India” through investments by Chinese companies including Alibaba and Tencent in Indian multinationals such as BYJU’s, the Educational technology company based in Bangalore. The appearance of Bollywood megastars Shah Rukh Khan and Kabir Khan at the Beijing International Film Festival in 2019 is interpreted by the report as a covert intelligence mission by the Chinese to “make inroads into Bollywood for its influence operations through the mechanism of co-productions.” The selection of Sha Rukh Khan’s film Zero to close the festival is referred to as a “calculated step” by the Chinese Communist Party.
The report also highlights cultural exchanges between India and China and labels them as influence operations of the Chinese state. One “prominent” university in Delhi is not named by the report but it is accused of being a “bastion [of] so-called China experts”. Another Delhi-based organisation, also unnamed, is accused of “creating sentiments favourable to China among Indians” and “discharging duties similar to that of the Chinese Embassy.” Further, an organisation which operates cultural exchanges for young people between Beijing and Delhi is pilloried by the report, with the Chairman lambasted for “authoring China-appeasing articles across Indian media platforms.”
Elsewhere, the report cites the fact that the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) has refrained from criticising or rebuking China as proof that China has infiltrated India’s political system; mentions US$7 billion worth of Chinese investments in India’s tech sector; observes that Chinese tourists are frequently seen “interacting with Buddhist monks, clicking pictures, and doing a recce of monasteries” and refers to recent Chinese activities on the Sino-Indian border and in Nepal.
In an online event convened to discuss the report, journalist Aarti Tikoo said that the report showed that Chinese influence in India today was similar to the British influence 200-300 years ago. Ilshat Kokbore, a member of the World Uyghur Congress, said that the report showed how adept the Chinese were at “twisting reality and spreading propaganda.”
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