On November 21 Chinese immigration authorities at Shanghai airport detained a transiting UK-based Indian national on the grounds that she was from Arunachal Pradesh which, China claims, is part of China and not India.
The transit passenger, Ms.Pem Wong Thongdok, was told that she should have had a Chinese passport and not an Indian one and was detained for 18 hours. Ms. Thongdok, who was on her way from the UK to Japan, was put through much harassment before the Indian Consulate in Shanghai interceded and enabled her to proceed to Japan.
The incident triggered a sharp rebuke from New Delhi which reiterated India’s sovereignty over Arunachal Pradesh and pointed out that transit passengers carrying Indian passports could lawfully be in China for 24 hours.
Asked for a response to the ordeal suffered by Ms. Thongdok, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning denied that she was subjected to detention or harassment. “We learnt that China’s border inspection authorities have gone through the whole process according to the laws and regulations, and fully protected the lawful rights and interests of the person concerned,” Mao said.
She reiterated China’s claims over Arunachal Pradesh, which it calls “Zangnan” or “South Tibet” and therefore a part of China.
For years now, China has been issuing “stappled visas”, a piece of paper stapled to the passport, to residents of Arunachal Pradesh who wish to visit China. Ms. Thongdok’s passport was not stappled for entry into China because she was a transit passenger.
The Thongdok affair was meant to demonstrate China’s geopolitical and geo-strategic presence in the region and highlight its territorial claims in it. It was meant to tell New Delhi that the recent thawing of Sino-Indian bilateral ties did not mean that China would abandon its core interests, including territorial claims.
Since the meeting between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in August, India and China had been making efforts to bury the hatchet and cooperate, at least in economic matters and encourage people to people interaction. The two leaders had agreed to be more liberal in giving visas and start direct flights.
But the incident in Shanghai airport threatens to stall the reconciliation process.
The flexing of muscles by China even on a small matter relating to a transit passenger can be understood only when seen in two contexts, namely - (1) the contemporary geopolitical situation and (2) the historical context of the conflicting claims of China and India over Arunachal Pradesh.
A major development which has caused concern in China is the huge Indian military build-up in North-Eastern India. This is in response to China’s own build-up on its side of the 3488 km border with India.
The Indian build-up took place also in the context of the worsening relations between India and Bangladesh over the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, an Indian protégé in 2024 by a violent movement.
Bangladesh is also entering into a military tie up with Pakistan, India’s primary rival in South Asia. And Pakistan is supported to the hilt by China as demonstrated with telling effect during the 4-day India-Pakistan war in May, codenamed Operation Sindoor.
In November, the Indian Air Force held its first-ever, full-scale air show in Guwahati in Assam featuring Rafales, Sukhois, Mirages and transport aircraft. Analysts noted the significance of the location of the spectacle. It was near the vulnerable Siliguri Corridor or Chicken’s Neck which is a narrow, 22-kilometre-wide stretch linking India’s North Eastern states to the Indian mainland. It is also at a hop-step-and jump from the Sino-Indian border.
In recent weeks, India had established three new fully operational army garrisons close to the Bangladesh border — at Bamuni (Assam’s Dhubri district), Kishenganj (Bihar) and Chopra (North Dinajpur, West Bengal). India’s Eastern Army Commander Lt.Gen. R.C. Tiwari urged the troops there to be “proactive in meeting evolving security challenges”.
The base at Chopra lies barely a kilometre from Tetulia in Bangladesh’s Panchagarh district — opposite Bangladesh’s Lalmonirhat airbase, where Bangladesh is reportedly installing new radar systems with Chinese help.
These developments took place as Pakistan’s naval chief made a four-day visit to Bangladesh aimed at strengthening defence ties. Bangladesh’s Chief Advisor (Prime Minister) Muhammad Yunus gifted a book to a visiting top Pakistani military officer which, allegedly, had a map depicting parts of India’s northeast as “Greater Bangladesh”.
During a visit to Beijing earlier this year, Yunus referred to India’s North Eastern states as “landlocked” and called Bangladesh the region’s “only guardian of the ocean”. These remarks drew sharp criticism in Indian strategic circles.
Meanwhile, on the Northern India-China border, India inaugurated a new airbase at Mudh-Nyoma in Ladakh, 13,000 feet above sea level.
India also conducted the “Trishul” inter-services exercise between October 30 and November 13, to test coordination, magnitude, new operational concepts and advanced weapon systems. The overarching goal of “Trishul” was to enhance the synergy among the tri-forces, enabling India’s military to conduct multi-domain operations more effectively.
Military manoeuvres were conducted in desert and marsh terrains of Rajasthan and Gujarat states. Maritime and amphibious operations were carried out in the Northern Arabian Sea. According to the media, over the course of two weeks, “Trishul” involved the active participation of more than 30,000 troops from the Indian Army, 25 warships and submarines from the Indian Navy, 40 Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft, and personnel from paramilitary forces – making the exercise the largest integrated force display by India since its ceasefire with Pakistan in May.
The extensive nature of “Trishul” followed India’s stand that Operation Sindoor against Pakistan was “not stopped but only paused” and that any terror attack on India by Pakistan-based groups would be taken as a “declaration of war.”
Significantly, India’s Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh, caused a stir when he said on Sunday, that the Pakistani province of Sindh might not remain a part of Pakistan because it was historically a part of India. Rajnath Singh added that borders often change, and who knows, Sindh might return to India. The Defence Minister made the remarks while addressing the Sindhi Samaj Sammelan Program in New Delhi.
Applauding Singh’s claim, the Sindhi nationalist leader, Shafi Muhammad Burfat, founder and current chairman of “Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz” (JSMM), a Sindhi political party in Pakistan, wrote on X saying that Singh’s statement that “Sindh may, in the future, become a part of India, was a ray of hope for the national unity, survival, security, and the re-emergence and completion of the Sindhi nation.”
Pakistan strongly condemned Rajnath Singh’s remarks, terming them "delusional" and "dangerously revisionist". Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that such remarks “revealed an expansionist Hindutva mindset" that seeks to challenge established realities and stands in violation of international law and the sovereignty of states.
It is in the context of geo-political developments in the region that one should see the extraordinary action of the Chinese authorities in Shanghai against the Indian transit passenger from Arunachal Pradesh. By raising the issue of sovereignty over Arunachal Pradesh in Pem Thongdok’s passport case in a situation of conflict in the South Asian region, China was signalling that it would remain a tough customer despite the recent thaw in Sino-India relations.
Both India and China claim Arunachal Pradesh, but on different grounds.
India’s claim rests on the March 1914 Simla “pact” between the British Indian government, a Tibetan government representative and the Chinese government on the border between India and Tibet. But China’s claim rests on its “historical suzerainty” over Tibet including Arunachal Pradesh which it says is “South Tibet.”
The British Indian representative at the Simla conference, Sir Henry McMahon, and the Tibetan representative signed on the document and approved the border which was named “McMahon Line” after Sir Henry McMahon. According to the pact, Arunachal Pradesh fell on the Indian side of the McMahon Line. The Chinese representative, however, refused to sign and only initialled it. China never ratified the McMahon Line saying that it was imposed by “British imperialists” on all the three parties.
In the 1950s, when the People' s Republic of China wanted talks with India to finalize the Sino-Indian border, and India reluctantly agreed to talks, China proposed that it would recognise the McMahon Line in exchange for India’s recognition of Aksai Chin bordering Xinjiang as China’s.
While the Indian government was open to the idea of swapping territory as Aksai Chin was a desolate area where nothing grew, parliament and the Indian public opinion were totally against any surrender of territory inherited at the time of independence.
China revived its claim over Arunachal Pradesh and kept pressing for its recognition by India. When India did not budge, China started giving its own names to over 50 places in Arunachal Pradesh. It also started issuing stappled visas to travellers from Arunachal Pradesh instead of stamping on their passports. And now it looks as if China may not issue visas to Indians from Arunachal Pradesh, pushing back Sino-Indian reconciliation efforts.