Since Chinese troops killed 20 Indian soldiers in a border fight in the Himalayas on June 15, Indians have found eye-catching ways to show their outrage. Traders at a busy retail market in Hyderabad stomped on Chinese-made mosquito bats and residents of a middle-class apartment in Gujarat tossed a Chinese flatscreen televisions out the window.
The displays were a reminder that even amid tensions along their disputed 3,488km border, the nuclear-armed neighbours are deeply enmeshed economically, with Chinese companies having established a strong foothold in India’s consumer market.
In the aftermath of the bloodshed, prime minister Narendra Modi’s government is reconsidering its economic relationship with China. With little appetite for a military showdown, New Delhi wants to hit its more powerful neighbour where it thinks it can hurt — its coffers — by limiting Chinese companies’ access to the Indian market.