Chinese immigration officials at Shanghai Pudong Airport detained Pema Wang Thongdok, an Indian citizen from Arunachal Pradesh, for around 18 hours. The incident triggered a diplomatic spat between India and China last week. The row came amid a thaw in relations that were frozen for over four years, following the Galwan clashes in June 2020.
The incident underscores not only how fragile relations remain despite the two sides taking a slew of measures to normalize ties but also how quickly the long-festering Sino-Indian border dispute erupts to the fore, at a minimum, in a war of words.
Thongdok was travelling on her Indian passport from London to Japan with a three-hour layover in Shanghai. She had encountered no problems previously while transiting through Shanghai airport.
However, this time around, “I was waiting in the queue at the security gate when a lady came, singled me out, and took me out of the queue,” she told the Indian Express. Pointing to Thongdok’s passport, which mentions Arunachal Pradesh as her place of birth, the officials told her that since “Arunachal Pradesh is a part of China,” her Indian passport was “not valid.” They told me “I should get a Chinese passport, because I am Chinese,” Thongdok said.
Thongdok’s 18-hour “ordeal” with Chinese authorities at Shanghai airport was likely the outcome of the overenthusiasm of Chinese officials at a lower level, rather than the result of any orders issued by decision makers at higher levels. While it ended with the arrival of Indian officials at the airport, its roots lie in a long-running dispute.
Arunachal Pradesh, where Thongdok was born, is a state in India’s Northeast. China claims almost all of the territory of Arunachal Pradesh and calls the region “southern Tibet” or “Zangnan.”
Responding to a question from a reporter about Thongdok’s Indian passport and her detention at Shanghai airport, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said: “Zangnan is China’s territory. The Chinese side has never recognized the so-called Arunachal Pradesh, illegally set up by India.”
Mao claimed that Thongdok was treated “in accordance with laws and regulations.” “The law enforcement was impartial and non-abusive. The lawful rights and interests of the person concerned were fully protected. No compulsory measures were taken on her, and there was no so-called detaining or harassing,” she said.
India’s foreign ministry responded soon after. The “arbitrary detention” of an Indian national at Shanghai airport has been “taken up strongly with the Chinese side,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said. He then went on to reiterate India’s position on the territorial dispute.
“Arunachal Pradesh,” Jaiswal said, “is an integral and inalienable part of India, and this is a self-evident fact. No amount of denial by the Chinese side is going to change this indisputable reality.”
The entire stretch of the China-India border is disputed. In addition, the two sides claim chunks of territory under the other’s control. India claims some 38,000 sq km in Aksai Chin in the western sector of the border. China claims that around 90,000 sq km in Arunachal Pradesh is Chinese territory.
During the 1962 war, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army occupied Aksai Chin and also a vast swathe of territory in Arunachal, then known as the North East Frontier Agency. However, at the end of the war it pulled back from Arunachal. In the following decades, Beijing’s interest in Arunachal appeared to have dwindled. Under a “package proposal” China put forward, it was willing to cede claims over Arunachal in return for India recognizing its claim over Aksai Chin.
However, Beijing began to reassert its claims in the eastern sector in the mid-1980s. Chinese incursions into the Sumdorong Chu valley in Arunachal in July 1986 and large-scale troop movements on both sides of the de facto border, the Line of Actual Control (LAC), in early 1987, put India and China seemingly on the brink of another war.
In the decades since, there have been several incursions along the border at Arunachal; not all of them can be blamed on a “fuzzy” border. In 2022, for example, even as tensions at Ladakh in the western sector were running high, the PLA, in the words of India’s Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, “tried to transgress the LAC” in Tawang to “unilaterally change the status quo in the area.”
China has sought to assert its claims in Arunachal Pradesh in non-military ways as well. It has issued statements objecting to visits by Indian leaders, the Dalai Lama, and foreign diplomats and officials to the state. Since April 2017, Beijing has issued lists of Chinese names it has assigned to places, mountains, rivers, lakes, and passes in Arunachal.
The “ordeal” that Thongdok was subjected to at Shanghai airport is not the first time that Chinese officials have harassed Indian passport holders.
Since 2005, China has issued stapled visas to people from Arunachal Pradesh traveling to China. While the Chinese visa is stamped on the passports of other Indian citizens, Beijing has singled out Arunachalis for stapled visas, its argument being that it cannot issue regular visas to people it considers Chinese nationals.
China’s issue of stapled visas to residents of Arunachal Pradesh leaves India with a dilemma. Accepting the stapled visa would amount to India accepting that Arunachalis are not Indians. India has therefore not allowed Indians with stapled visas to travel to China, as a result of which Arunachalis have been left angry and frustrated. Several athletes and officials from Arunachal Pradesh have suffered in this regard.
This was the experience, for instance, of three wushu athletes from Arunachal Pradesh in July 2023, who were to participate in the World University Games at Chengdu. With China issuing them stapled visas and Indian officials not accepting them, the team could not participate in the Chengdu games.
The storm over the recent passport row seems to have passed for now. Indian officials are said to have issued “strong démarches” to their Chinese counterparts in Beijing and New Delhi, and the two foreign ministries have been quiet since they exchanged words on the treatment meted out to Thongdok. India and China are likely moving cautiously, anxious not to jeopardize the gains made in normalizing relations over the past year.
Meanwhile, the people of Arunachal Pradesh will be apprehensive over whether China’s harassment of Thongdok over her passport was a one-off incident or the start of a new normal.