It’s been nearly a week since immigration authorites at Shanghai’s Pudong Airport detained Arunachali native Pema Thongdok, declaring her Indian passport invalid and insisting that since Arunachal Pradesh is a part of China, she needs a Chinese passport.
Pema Thongdok’s 18-hour ordeal was an unpleasant reminder, not for the first time, that the more things change on the India-China diplomatic front, the more they remain the same. The question is what would the Chinese have gained from this? Was it planned? Or was it some over zealous officials trying to score brownie points?
The statement released by the Ministry of External Affairs spoke volumes: “Chinese authorities have still not been able to explain their actions which are in violation of several conventions governing international air travel. The action by the Chinese authorities also violate their own regulations that allow visa-fred transit up to 24 hours for nationals of all countries.”
The MEA statement also pointed out that “At a time when both sides are working on restoring normalcy, such actions by the Chinese side introduce unnecessary obstructions to the process.”
The statement was with reference to the two sides moving to normalise relations for the first time since the Galwan clash saw these go bottom up. Today flights have resumed between key cities, Chinese tourists and investments are coming into India, diplomatic consultations on a range of issues have been stepped up in the wake of the tariff storm unleashed by President Trump.
Given the opaque nature of the Chinese state, we will probabaly never know. But the treatment meted out to Pema Thongdok would have recalled the period when the Chinese were issuing “stapled visas” to Arunachal residents. China never disavowed those stapled visas despite Indian protests resulitng in the cancellation of delegation level visits.
China scholars and diplomats say the mandarins in Beijing will always work to ensure relations remain on edge especially on issues where they have an interest. They need to show Arunachal prominently on their radar. Perhaps this is what the People’s Liberation Army, which is a known a hardline element in the Chinese establishment when it comes to India.
The million-dollar question; Was the Pema incident a one-off thing or will there be more such incidents going forward? Wait and see.
