‘Visas of Chinese journalists expired in Jan’

THE GOVERNMENT’S decision to not renew visas for three India-based Chinese journalists is not going to be reversed, sources said Sunday. The three journalists, who are expected to leave by July 31, work with Xinhua, China's official news agency.

While there is a feeling that this could lead to a “tit-for-tat” response, a Chinese diplomat told The Indian Express that relations between India and China were “strong” and they will “investigate” the reasons for the non-renewal of the visas.

Mohan Guruswamy, an expert on China who heads the Centre for Policy Alternatives, said, “What purpose does this serve? If it is a retaliation for China blocking India’s bid to become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group, it is a pin-prick — in response to a slap.”

Guruswamysaidthatthoughthethreejournalists were members of the Communist party apart from being professionals, one of them — Lu Tang — was “a good friend of India” and promoted Indian stories in the Chinese media. “She had studied in Gujarat and JNU. She was based in Mumbai and had a good understanding about India,” he said.

While Lu Tang was Xinhua’s Mumbai bureau chief, Wu Qiang was the Delhi bureau chief. Another Xinhua correspondent, She Yonggang, will also have to leave India by July 31.

Sources said that the decision was based on “adverse attention” from security agencies. They denied that the three Chinese journalists were being “expelled”, saying that their visa validity had already expired in January and they were staying here on extension. “We were giving them these short extensions as they wanted to stay on till their successors were here. But since their successors were not here even after months, we gave them a cut-off date,” a source said.