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Wallet power not bullet power: Sonam Wangchuk appeals for action against China
Sonam Wangchuk, an engineer-turned-education reformer, has said India can win the war against China through the Indian Army as well as people’s boycott of Chinese companies.
Sonam Wangchuk, the man who inspired Aamir Khan’s 3 Idiots character, has asked Indians to boycott all things Chinese in response to the border standoff between India and China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
The engineer-turned-education reformer has said India can win the war against China through the Indian Army as well as people’s boycott of Chinese companies.
“Use your wallet power. #BoycottMadeInChina #SoftwareInAWeekHardwareInAYear to stop Chinese bullying in Ladakh and eventually to liberate the 1.4 billion bonded labourers in China, as also the 10 million Uighur Muslims and 6 million Tibetan Buddhists,” Wangchuk said in a tweet accompanying the video.
In the video, Wangchuk can be seen sitting against the picturesque Himalayas and River Sindhu as he how beyond the ice-topped mountains, thousands of soldiers are trying to protect the country.
Wangchuk’s video has been widely shared on Twitter and WhatsApp.
He says, this time, India’s reply to China shouldn’t just be from the soldiers but should include action from the citizens as well.
Wangchuk adds that China’s recent moves have been not just at the Indian border but also in the South China Sea, Vietnam, Taiwan and now Hong Kong as well.
China, he says, is using these moves as a distraction tool for Chinese people due to failures of the administration amid the closure of factories and exports and loss of jobs.
He points out that the war with India in 1962 was also one of the tactics by the Chinese government to shift Chinese citizens’ attention away from its failures.
“I think wallet power will work more than bullet power this time. The money people spend buying Chinese goods. Just think, you and I, we buy things from idols to clothes worth Rs 5 lakh crore from China. And, this money is used to buy ammunition to kill our soldiers on the border,” he says in the nearly nine-minute video.
If all Indians in India and abroad can start a boycott made in China movement, then others across the world may start doing the same. It would, in turn, hit the Chinese economy and its people may turn against the government.
“On one hand, our soldiers are fighting them and on the other hand, we would be buying Chinese goods—from mobiles to computers to toys and clothes—and sending money to the Chinese army. It was about hardware. Our youth uses software and apps like TikTok, and give them business worth crores,” Wangchuk said.
“So, it is very important that we give them a reply from the citizens and make it a global movement,” he says.
Wangchuk also rooted for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s push for self-reliance under the Atamanirbhar Bharat mission.
“As I finish my message, I am going to tell you what I am going to do. I will be getting rid of all the Chinese apps on my phone, which is made in China, within a week as well as the phone. And in one year, I will throw out of my life everything that is made in China,” he says.
He says, he doesn’t have any problem with China and the Chinese people but the Chinese government and its attitude. He urged people to hold events for everyone to take an oath to boycott Chinese goods until China changes.
Sonam Wangchuk had inspired the character of Phunsukh Wangdu, which was played by Aamir Khan in the Bollywood blockbuster 3 Idiots.
