An order to leave the country before the end of the month was issued against the correspondent for Press Trust of India (TPI). Previously, the visas of reporters from The Hindu, Prasar Bharati and Hindustan Times. This confrontation is part of the phase of tension between the two Asian economic and nuclear powers, particularly along the Himalayan border.
Beijing () – Beijing has launched a war against Indian journalists (four so far) operating in the country, ordering their progressive expulsion by not renewing their residence visas or work permits. As reported by the agency Bloombergthe last one left – a reporter from the Press Trust of India (TPI) – was told to leave China before the end of the month. Last weekend, a colleague from the Hindustan Times had to leave, while two journalists from the public channel Prasar Bharati and The Hindu they were denied a visa in April.
China spoke of “appropriate measures” against Delhi. That is, reprisals against the Indian government for the treatment that, in Beijing’s opinion, is given to Chinese journalists. On the other hand, Indian diplomacy is working to try to make the siege more flexible and allow envoys or correspondents to return to Chinese territory, at least partially.
In an interview with Reuters, Arindam Bagchi, spokesman for the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stressed that “all foreign reporters, including Chinese, have carried out journalistic activities in India without restrictions or difficulties for reporting or media coverage.” Instead, Indian colleagues in China would have been prevented from hiring local correspondents or contributors and even from traveling across the country. According to BloombergBeijing imposed measures that allow hiring only a small number of people, who are directly provided by the Chinese authorities.
Tension has long reigned between Beijing and Delhi, two economic and nuclear powers on the Asian continent, exacerbated by the 2020 military confrontation on the Himalayan border that left 24 soldiers dead. While China wants to keep the confrontation out of general relations, focusing on trade and economic ties, for India relations cannot return to normal until the border issue is resolved.
At the end of 2022, in the border area of the Himalayas, the military conflict between the two parties was revived. According to the Indian version, Delhi troops repelled the Chinese who were trying to cross the provisional border (Line of Actual Control, LAC) in the Yangtze area. The respective military forces then withdrew from the scene of the confrontation and the commanders reportedly negotiated to defuse the tension. There were more clashes in 2021 in Sikkim. A few months earlier, in June 2020, Indian and Chinese troops clashed in the Galwan Valley, between Indian Ladakh and Chinese Aksai Chin, with an official death toll of 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese casualties.
China and India share a 3,488-kilometre border in the Himalayas, over which they clashed in a brief but bloody conflict in 1962. Delhi claims large swaths of Aksai Chin (taken from Pakistan by the Chinese); Beijing, for its part, claims Arunachal Pradesh.
For some time now, the two countries have deployed between 50,000 and 60,000 troops and an increasing amount of heavy weapons on their side of the border, the most militarized in the world after the one separating Russia from Ukraine. Delhi has accelerated the construction of new infrastructure in the border areas that could be used for military purposes, and Beijing is doing the same.
The one in India is not the first confrontation between China and foreign correspondents in its territory, as evidenced by the long dispute over visas between Beijing and Washington. After the administration of former US President Donald Trump designated some Chinese networks as “foreign missions” and limited their number, the Country of the Dragon responded by revoking the press credentials of US journalists. In 2020, two Australian correspondents fled due to escalating diplomatic tensions between the two nations. They were initially prohibited from leaving and spent five days under consular protection until Australian diplomats could negotiate their departure.
