How Chinese is your Christmas shopping?

India is a diverse country, but also one full of irony. China is a rival – politically, militarily, and economically – yet Indian consumers, factories, and even the government depend on raw materials, supply chains, and finished products from China. Despite Modi’s bold and confident speeches about the Make in India, Atmanirbhar, and Swadeshi campaigns, the reality is that our daily lives are still dominated by Chinese products on a massive scale. Indian media continues to loudly celebrate the success of these campaigns, but some bold and independent media outlets have repeatedly reported on their failures and ground reality.
In fact, BRUT, an independent online news channel, reported during the 2025 Diwali festival from Chandni Chowk market, New Delhi, in an interview with wholesalers and retailers selling decorative LED lights and other products. They claim that although all the products are stamped “Made in India”, the reality is that they are imported in bulk from China, and even the printing of the “Made in India” logo on the packaging is done in China. Such is the scale of the hypocrisy surrounding the “Made in India” campaign. Despite government bans and high customs duties, demand for Chinese products continues to dominate Indian markets, and Indian businessmen continue to evade government bans and restrictions through creative means to fulfill consumer demands.
With the arrival of the Christmas season, shoppers in Nagaland too cannot escape this Chinese presence. From Amazon to Meesho, from smartphones to electronic gadgets, from car accessories to EV batteries, from solar panels to electric switches, from CCTVs to memory cards, from toys to drones, from household items to toothpicks, from socks to underwear, from shirt buttons to trouser zips – you name a product, and it will have a Chinese connection in one way or another.
Let us start with fashion. The popular second-hand goods available in the markets of Nagaland, mostly from China, are highly sought after by the Nagas because of their design, quality, colour, and size similarity with our East Asian counterparts. In the case of new clothes, despite the mushrooming of numerous shopping malls selling Indian brands in Dimapur, Chümoukedima, and Kohima, shoppers in Nagaland continue to prefer trendy design and fast fashion clothes and products from China, available at Hazi Park, Hong Kong Market, Central Plaza, and New Market. Even the footpath vendors below the Dimapur flyover and along Nyamo Lotha Road, who sell clothing and other products from Bangladesh, Thailand, and Vietnam, source their goods from factories that are either wholly or partially owned by Chinese companies or have some connection with Chinese investments.
The fashionable jewellery, makeup and hair accessories, footwear, undergarments, artificial flowers, and similar items available in the markets of Dimapur and Kohima are all imported from China by our Naga entrepreneurs and non-Naga businessmen. The electronics and gadget market in Hazi Park is filled with Chinese products. Computers, smartphones and accessories, smart TVs, speakers, ac’s, watches, heaters, mosquito zappers, torch lights, phone chargers, and even USB cables are all made in China or assembled in India with components, chips, ICs, transistors, magnets, batteries, and so on, imported from China.
So do not be surprised if you discover that festive decorations, LED lights, X-mas trees, and the entire Christmas enchilada available in the markets are stamped “Made in India” but are actually manufactured in China.
Not forgetting the premium designer jackets, coats, overcoats, and footwear, which will be the trending fashion among Naga VIPs, officials and domestic visitors at the upcoming Hornbill Festival, these premium brands too will have a Chinese connection even if purchased from malls and showrooms in New York, London, Paris or Dubai.
As such, whether it is the BJP or their deshbhakt allies promoting swadeshi or shoppers in Nagaland, despite the restrictions, one thing is certain: no one can escape this ubiquitous Chinese invasion because, whether we like it or not, our daily lives simply cannot function normally and efficiently without some Chinese ingredient and flavor to it. This is how Chinese our modern lives have become. Xie xie and Kuknalim.
R. Francis Kikon
Naharbari, Dimapur