(TibetanReview.net, Sep22’23) – China has again prevented three wushu sportswomen from the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh from travelling to its city of Hangzhou to participate in the Asian Games which opened on Sep 22. China calls the state “southern Tibet” belonging to it on the basis of its armed invasion and illegal annexation of Tibet just after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.
India’s three leading female wushu athletes – all hailing from Arunachal Pradesh- who are part of the country’s Asian Games contingent were forced to stay back in Delhi even as other team members reached Hangzhou Thursday morning. The trio didn’t receive necessary clearances from Chinese authorities to enter the mainland, reported the timesofindia.com Sep 22.
The sportswomen, Nyeman Wangsu, Onilu Tega and Mepung Lamgu, were scheduled to fly out as part of an 11-member wushu contingent – seven male and four female athletes – on a Cathay Pacific flight Sep 20 night from IGI airport in New Delhi. They were to take part in individual events of the martial arts sport.
The three women did receive their accreditation cards from Hangzhou Asian Games Organising Committee (HAGOC) which also acts as an entry visa. The athletes were then required to download their travel document which is validated upon arrival.
However, they could not download their travel document on Sep 20 when they were scheduled to travel for the Asian Games. The rest of the wushu squad, along with the coaching staff, faced no such issues and boarded the flight for Hong Kong on Sep 20 night, from where they had a connecting flight to Hangzhou, reported the hindustantimes.com Sep 22.
“Once the athletes received the accreditation cards from the organising committee, it meant that they have been cleared to travel for the Asian Games. But surprisingly only these three players could not download their document and they could not board the flight,” an official was quoted as saying.
Earlier, in the last week of July, the same players could not compete at the World University Games in Chengdu, China (July 18-Aug 8) because they were given stapled visas by China. Stapled visas are meant to indicate that China doesn’t recognise India’s sovereignty over Arunachal Pradesh. The eight-member Wushu team had then withdrawn from the event in Chengdu in protest.
China began the practice of issuing stapled visas to residents of Arunachal Pradesh in the mid-2000s and it extended the practice to residents of Jammu & Kashmir in 2009. During a visit to India in 2014, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi contended that stapled visas do “not undermine or compromise our respective positions on the border question”, the report said.
India’s response so far has been to stop referring to the “one China” policy in official documents from more than a decade ago but has, nevertheless, continued to adhere to this Chinese policy.
Meanwhile China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying announced Sep 21 that President Xi Jinping will attend the opening ceremony of the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou and hold a welcoming banquet and bilateral events for foreign leaders attending the opening ceremony over Sep 22-23. The foreign leaders do not include any major world or Asian leader except Xi Jinping himself.