Anti-China Sentiment Highest In Indians; 40% Consumers Don't Want To Buy Chinese Smartphones: Survey

A survey has revealed that Indian consumers have the highest anti-china sentiment with one in four people saying they don't want to buy Chinese products

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New Delhi: The growing anti-China sentiment in India may hurt Chinese smartphone makers hard as a survey revealed that four in ten respondents said that they will not buy Made-in-China products or smartphones from Chinese brands.  Overall, more than half of the respondents from India have a negative attitude towards Made-in-China products or Chinese smartphone brands, according to the Global Consumer Lens study by Counterpoint Research. This survey was conducted before the India-China faceoff at Line of Actual Control in the Galwan valley of Ladakh. The researchers explored consumer sentiment about smartphones manufactured in China as the Wuhan region was the starting point of the Covid-19 pandemic. The study was conducted across seven major smartphone markets – the UK, India, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the US. The anti-China sentiment is highest among Indian consumers, said the study. Similarly, about one-fifth of respondents from the US preferred not to buy Made-in-China products even though in the era of globalisation, it is difficult to label a product as "Chinese" as its components are sourced across different regions. The research showed that in India, 16 percent of Indian consumers want to cut spending by 20 percent when making their next smartphone purchase. Respondents planning to wait before buying are the highest in India - 61 percent. The research found similar intentions in Spain and Italy where 58 percent and 56 percent of respondents, respectively, planned to wait longer before replacing their smartphones. In the US, the number intending to delay buying was 41 percent. Germany had the fewest respondents planning to delay purchasing – 34 percent. Consumers intending to cut their future smartphone purchase budget by 20 percent or more are highest in Spain (27 percent) and Italy (25 percent), followed by the US (24 percent). In India, half the respondents are intending to spend between Rs 10,000-Rs 20,000, said the study. The survey which involved over 1,000 respondents from India was conducted across different countries from mid of May to the first week of June. WATCH | Three Chinese projects come to a halt in Maharashtra