TikTok website, AliExpress accessible in India after 5-year ban? App still blocked

New Delhi: The websites of Chinese short-video platform TikTok and e-commerce giant AliExpress have quietly reappeared in India, nearly five years after being banned amid strained bilateral ties in 2020. While TikTok’s site currently allows access only to its homepage, the mobile app remains completely unavailable in the country. 

TikTok was banned in June 2020, shortly after the Galwan Valley clashes in which 20 Indian soldiers lost their lives. The government cited national security concerns while imposing the ban, which also affected several other Chinese apps. Since then, the app has remained off Indian app stores, cutting off one of TikTok’s largest user bases.

As of Friday evening, neither the Government of India nor ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, had issued an official statement on the platform’s partial return.

The development comes at a time of renewed diplomatic engagement between New Delhi and Beijing. Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi earlier this week, where both sides agreed on steps toward building a “stable, cooperative and forward-looking” relationship. The discussions included maintaining border peace, reopening trade routes, boosting investment flows, and resuming direct flight connectivity.

Wang also conveyed President Xi Jinping’s invitation to Modi for the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Tianjin.

Meanwhile, Chinese Ambassador Xu Feihong, speaking at an event in New Delhi on Thursday, criticized US tariff measures targeting India and China. “The United States imposed tariffs of up to 50% on India, and even threatened to impose more. China fully opposes it,” he said.

Feihong added that China was ready to work with India and other partners to ensure the SCO summit delivers “friendship, solidarity, and fruitful outcomes,” poetically calling for a “dragon-elephant tango” between the two Asian giants.