The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) termed the remark as "great insult" to India and urged people to refrain from buying Chinese goods this Diwali.
"The remarks by Chinese media are at a very low level speaks the mentality of China on this issue and also reflect the anxiety of China by the success of social media campaign (to boycott Chinese goods)," CAIT said.
CAIT National President BC Bhartia & Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said that such a remark amounts to great insult of our country.
"It appears that China is under a wrong impression that Indians can not celebrate Diwali without Chinese products. Let the Diwali festival give an appropriate answer to China since the campaign has deeply penetrated among women and children in houses beyond markets who have made up their mind not to purchase Chinese goods in this Diwali festival season," the traders' body said.
CAIT urged the Union Government to declare a policy for reimbursement of losses suffered by Indian traders.