By Zarak Khan | 2025-12-05

A planned three-hour transit at Shanghai Pudong International Airport turned into an 18-hour detention for Pema Wangjom Thongdok, a UK-based Indian citizen from Arunachal Pradesh state. Chinese immigration officers stopped her on November 21 as she travelled from London to Japan.

Officers at the immigration counter told her that her Indian passport was "invalid" because it lists Arunachal Pradesh as her place of birth, and she says they taunted her by insisting the state was part of China, according to Indian media.

The episode has renewed scrutiny of how Beijing's contested claims over Arunachal Pradesh shape its treatment of Indian travelers and reopened questions about the durability of the recent diplomatic thaw between India and China.

China calls Arunachal Pradesh "Zangnan" or "South Tibet," a stance India rejects.

Thongdok told the ANI news agency that when she questioned the decision, immigration personnel ridiculed and laughed at her.

"They said, 'Arunachal is not part of India' and started mocking and laughing and saying things like 'you should apply for the Chinese passport, you're Chinese, you're not Indian,'" she said.

In social media posts and interviews with Indian outlets, Thongdok said that Chinese officials took away her passport, blocked her from boarding her flight to Japan and gave her little information or assistance as the short layover turned into an overnight ordeal. Indian consular officials in China later intervened, she said, helping her regain her passport and putting her on a subsequent flight out of the country.

Diplomatic backlash

India responded with a strong démarche in both Beijing and New Delhi, protesting what India's Ministry of External Affairs described as an "arbitrary" detention.

"Arunachal Pradesh 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," Randhir Jaiswal, the ministry's spokesperson, said in a statement.

"The actions by the Chinese authorities also violate their own regulations that allow visa free transit up to 24 hours for nationals of all countries," he added.

Pema Khandu, chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh, said he was "deeply shocked" by the ordeal faced by Thongdok. "Subjecting her despite a valid Indian passport to humiliation and racial mockery is appalling," he tweeted.

"Such conduct violates international norms and is an affront to the dignity of our citizens," he wrote.

Border tension backdrop

The incident adds to longstanding friction along the Line of Actual Control, the de facto boundary separating the two nuclear-armed neighbors.

India and China share a 3,380km-long border marred by territorial disputes, recurring military standoffs and competing military infrastructure. The relationship deteriorated sharply after June 2020 clashes in Ladakh that left 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers dead, the worst Sino-Indian fighting since 1975.

Beijing claims the whole of Arunachal Pradesh while administering none of it. India, in turn, claims the Aksai Chin plateau, an area under Chinese control.

China has intensified efforts to reinforce its claim over Arunachal Pradesh by issuing a series of "standardized names" for locations inside the Indian state. Since 2017, Beijing has released multiple lists renaming towns, mountains, rivers and passes. India has rejected all such attempts as legally meaningless.

Beijing maintains that issuing new names is within its "sovereign right," a stance that mirrors its longstanding policy of issuing stapled visas to residents of Arunachal Pradesh. China avoids stamping these Indian passports, attaching instead a separate paper slip. New Delhi considers the practice discriminatory and politically motivated.

Incident endangers Sino-Indian thaw

The timing of Thongdok's detention has drawn particular attention because it comes amid cautious attempts by both governments to stabilize ties.

Despite recent diplomatic efforts, Sino-Indian relations remain fragile.

Over the past year, the two sides have worked to revive limited engagement, resume commercial flights, adjust border patrol procedures and exchange senior-level visits. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to view one another as "partners, not rivals" during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Tianjin, China, from August 31 to September 1.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi conveyed similar sentiments during talks in New Delhi in August, signaling Beijing's willingness to pursue a more predictable phase in ties with New Delhi.

"Thongdok's detention shows exactly why many Indians do not trust China," said Sanjay Kumar, a New Delhi-based political activist.

"Beijing's pattern of coercive diplomacy, its provocations in Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh, and its intimidation of ordinary Indian citizens make it increasingly difficult for New Delhi to take China's commitments at face value," he told Focus.

Suspicions thus are high on the Indian side. Indian authorities detained Chinese national Liu Qunjing on November 24 at the Rupaidiha checkpost in Uttar Pradesh after he allegedly crossed into India illegally from Nepal and filmed sensitive stretches of the border.

Throughout 2025, Indian authorities have repeatedly arrested Chinese nationals, mainly along the India-Nepal frontier, underscoring how stepped-up monitoring and security concerns continue to shadow the relationship.