Market competition behind threat tone

An expert on telecom security told Xinhua that Chinese equipment producers are committed to meeting domestic and international standards of security and post-sale security issues are actually taken care of by the local vendors. If there exists a potential security threat, the vendors will be have all responsibility.

He said as most media people lack real knowledge of technological issues in telecom production, they have become unconsciously a collaborator in producing the fiction of "software spy".

The Chinese telecom companies are now worried that restrictions on the using of their products could suffocate their development in the Indian market.

Like the telecom industry, Chinese power industry has been known with a similar story of high growth and is facing direct competition from domestic industry, such as India's heavy electricity machinery Producer BHEL.

BHEL previously protected by government granted monopoly, has lost all leverage against outside competitors due to lack of competitive capability, and its production has been on the decline.

Some local analysts believe, the flawed government policy and poor productive forces are main reasons behind India's failure to realize half its goal to increase electric power in the past five- year-plan.

Restrictions good for India?

According to local media reports, many Indian private telecom vendors have openly expressed opposition to government plan to ban Chinese equipment.

They warned government officials that such measures could only hurt Indian telecom industry itself, because most of them have signed contracts with such Chinese producers as Huawei Technologies and the ZTE.

They said the price of Chinese telecom equipment is lower than those of Ericsson, Nokia and Siemens. Most Indian telecom companies newly entering the local market signed buying contracts with Chinese companies because of the high competitiveness in price, while some established old brand companies are using Chinese price as a bargain in talks with European producers.

Local news reports said some DoT officials have already hinted that the government might soften "compulsory measures" against Chinese products into "security guidelines", and might also minimize the number of states to be designated as "sensitive border area" banned from Chinese products.

(Xinhua News Agency September 9, 2009)