India retaliates by refusing visa to Chinese citizens for refusing entry to

New Delhi: 22,000 students studying in China returned home after the outbreak of Coronavirus in China. China is unwilling to allow these students entry to resume their courses. This has put the education of these students in jeopardy. India has raised this issue during discussions with China on various occasions. As China is not paying any attention to the Indian requests, India has decided to stop issuing visas to Chinese citizens. Chinese citizens coming for diplomatic and trade reasons only will be issued visas by India.

Moreover, China is refusing entry to Indian students only out of hate. The future of the Indian students hangs in balance because of this. Some of these students expressed their discontent by protesting outside the Chinese embassy. But China did not pay any attention to this. Instead, China has fuelled the anger of the Indian students further by allowing students from other countries to come and restart their education. The Indian government has raised this issue repeatedly with China. But China has not paid any heed. Against this background, India seems to have decided to refuse a visa to Chinese citizens.

Therefore, people travelling for diplomatic and trade purposes only will be issued visas to enter India and other citizens cannot travel to India. India has pointed out to China through this decision that the Chinese decision regarding Indian students is affecting bilateral relations. A few weeks ago, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited India. The Chinese Foreign Minister expressed a romantic expectation that the border dispute should not affect bilateral relations and claimed that his country was prepared to improve relations with India. But the decision taken by China regarding the Indian students only goes to show that the claim made by the Chinese Foreign Minister was a hoax.

This indicates that however big the claims for bilateral cooperation, China is unwilling to dispel its hate-India policies. Therefore, the Indian belief that China cannot be trusted will become stronger. China which intends to exploit trade benefits from India, will face the consequences in the coming times. Indian students will not take the risk of choosing the Chinese option. China seems to be willing to spoil the future of the Indian students despite this risk.