Despite the border tensions between Beijing and New Delhi, exports from China to India rose by 45.51% in 2021-’22, data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry showed. Notably, India’s exports to China grew by 0.61% in the same period.

Chinese exports to India jumped to Rs 7.02 trillion as against Rs 4.82 trillion in 2020-’21, the commerce ministry said.

The biggest imports from China includes iron and steel commodities, fertilisers, oil seeds, silk, among other items.

India and China have been locked in a border standoff since their troops clashed in Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh in June 2020. Twenty Indian soldiers were killed in the clash. China had put the number of casualties on its side at four.

Since the clash, India has banned a number of Chinese applications, including TikTok, online video games PUBG and Clash Of Kings and peer-to-peer filesharing software SHAREit, which were used by millions in the country.

Although New Delhi’s statement on the decision did not connect it to the tensions on the border, the move appeared to be an attempt to send a message to Beijing.

Hundreds of Indian traders had also burned Chinese goods and #BoycottChina trended on social media for weeks. In March, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had said India’s relations with China are still “not normal” due to the situation at the border.

On Wednesday, Lekha S Chakraborty, a professor at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, told The New Indian Express, “This is an irony why imports from China have increased by 45% in FY22 despite the bilateral political tensions. This rise in import dependency on China is not a sudden trend in FY22 but has been there in pandemic times.”

Senior economist Akash Jindal told the newspaper that increase in imports from China is not a cause of worry. “Had we been importing finished goods from China, it could be a cause of concern,” he said.