us media: chinese supply remains crucial to india's manufacturing ambitions
2024-09-03
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an article published on september 2 in the washington post, titled: india's growing reliance on china poses a challenge to u.s. trade strategy. in the past few years, u.s. companies that want to reduce their reliance on china have increasingly viewed india as a new manufacturing hub and a means of guarding against rising geopolitical tensions or potential disruptions to china's supply chain. but trade data and economic analysts believe that as india increases production of goods such as smartphones, solar panels and medicines, its own economy is also becoming more dependent on chinese imports, especially the components for these products. this trend reminds u.s. policymakers to face reality.data from the global trade research initiative, an indian think tank, shows that india's imports from china are growing at twice the rate of its overall imports and now account for nearly a third of india's imports in industries ranging from electronics to renewable energy to pharmaceuticals. these imports include finished products and intermediate products used in manufacturing.the confederation of indian industry said that nearly two-thirds of electronic components such as circuit boards currently imported by india come from china. india is a major exporter of medicines, but many important pharmaceutical raw materials rely on china. in the past five years alone, india's imports of raw materials and other intermediate pharmaceutical products from china have increased by more than 50%. to support the production of textiles and clothing, another important export industry in india, india has been increasing imports of yarn and fabrics from china. even the automotive industry, which is seen as a double harvest of domestic and foreign sales, is increasing imports of spare parts from china. india has made great progress in the production of solar panels, but is now more dependent on china's photovoltaic cells. after the united states restricted imports of chinese solar panel materials, india's exports to the us market surged in 2022. but from 2021 to 2023, india purchased more than half of its solar panel components from china.a senior biden administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was unrealistic to think things from china could be excluded from the u.s. supply chain at this point.even as india works to produce its own parts, it still relies on china for expertise. indian industry representatives have pressured the government to ease visa restrictions on chinese technicians so they can help indians use chinese machines to make smartphones, textiles and even shoes. princeton university economist ashok modi wrote: "the chinese can help india gain a foothold at the bottom of the global skills ladder... indian officials don't realize how ironic it is to emphasize independence when economic growth is increasingly dependent on foreign expertise, especially from china." pankaj mohindro, chairman of the indian cellular and electronics association, said: "india needs at least five years from china to build itself into a large-scale alternative with the full support of the united states."“to promote the development of indian manufacturing and integrate india into the global supply chain, india will inevitably have to connect to china’s supply chain,” said a recent economic survey prepared by the office of ananta nageswaran, the indian government’s economic adviser.analysts agree that china's supply remains crucial to india's manufacturing ambitions. (author: karishma mehrotra, translated by chen junan)▲
