Advice for shoot-from-the-hip nationalists: Take aim before firing

It's all good to be tactical - keep China out of strategic markets; hit back in the same coin if it looks to keep India's key sectors out - but don't shoot yourself in the foot, writes T N Ninan

The sight of seemingly demented people jumping and dancing on Chinese-made consumer durables raises some intriguing questions about the thinking processes of our shoot-from-the-hip nationalists. What do they think will happen when Chinese products are replaced by Korean or Japanese ones? China’s total exports in a year are about $2.5 trillion. India accounts for 3 per cent of that. China also has $3 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, and a large trade surplus. So whom are we hurting? Some sellers of phone instruments, perhaps. Xi Jinping is unlikely to be impressed.
 
It is possible that Chinese suppliers will be