New Delhi: The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has reportedly decided to “freeze” the visas of two Indian journalists reporting from China – The Hindu‘s Ananth Krishnan and Prasar Bharati’s Anshuman Mishra. Both journalists, according to The Hindu, are currently in India and have been told that they will not be allowed to return to China.
According to Hindustan Times, Krishnan had been stopped at the airport and questioned for close to 30 minutes by Chinese authorities when he was flying back to India on March 31.
The ministry has also reportedly said that there may be more “counter measures” – such as revoking the visas of the PTI and Hindustan Times correspondents who are currently in China – unless India offers reciprocal visa and tenure terms to Chinese journalists in India.
According to The Hindu, China wants more visas for journalists from the country covering India, and also wants India to grant 12-month visas instead of the current visas that need to be renewed every three months.
The Ministry of External Affairs has not officially commented on the move, but sources reportedly told the newspaper that India has not taken any action against Chinese journalists in the recent past. It was “factually incorrect” to suggest any “measures” that merited “counter-measures” had been taken against Chinese journalists, they said.
However, Hindustan Times reported that a New Delhi-based reporter for Chinese state-run Xinhua news agency was told last month that his Indian visa would not be renewed. He was asked to leave the country by March 31 and has done so, the newspaper reported.
While some Chinese journalists had left India during the COVID-19 pandemic and not returned, a few of them still had valid visas and could return if they wanted to, The Hindu‘s sources reportedly continued.
According to The Hindu, there were only about four Chinese journalists working in India at the end of 2022. In 2016, India had refused to extend the visas of three Chinese journalists working for Xinhua. At the time, some experts on foreign policy had called this a “needless aggravation”.
In the last few years, the India-China relationship has been on rocky ground, particularly after the Doklam standoff and a renewed push over boundary disputes. The most recent point of conflict has been China renaming places in Arunachal Pradesh. China claims the entire state of Arunachal as its territory.
India hit back at this renaming, saying it rejects it “outright”. “Arunachal Pradesh is, has been, and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India. Attempts to assign invented names will not alter this reality,” the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson said.
However, this did not deter China. In a regular press conference, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said, “Zangnan (what China calls Arunachal Pradesh) is part of China’s territory. In accordance with relevant stipulations of the administration of geographical names of the State Council, competent authorities of the Chinese government have standardised the names of some parts of Zangnan. This is within China’s sovereign rights.”