NEW DELHI: An Indian citizen from Arunachal Pradesh was detained for more than 18 hours at Shanghai airport after Chinese immigration officials allegedly declared her Indian passport invalid.
Prema Wangjom Thongdok, who has lived in the UK for about 14 years, said the incident occurred while she was travelling from London Gatwick to Japan with a layover in Shanghai.
She said, “I had crossed the e-gates and was waiting in the queue for my next flight when a Chinese immigration official approached me and pulled me aside. When I asked what was happening, she didn’t explain—she just told me to follow her. Then she said, ‘Arunachal—not India. China–China. Your visa is not acceptable. Your passport is invalid.’”
Thongdok alleged that airport officials mocked and laughed at her. “When I questioned them, they said, ‘Arunachal is not part of India’ and told me to apply for a Chinese passport. They kept saying, ‘You’re Chinese, not Indian.’” She added that she had transited through Shanghai before without any issues and described staff laughing and pointing at her passport as “humiliating.”
She said she had even checked with the Chinese embassy in London beforehand and was assured that a visa was not required for transit. However, once detained, she was unable to reach anyone for help because of WiFi problems and the inaccessibility of platforms like Google and WhatsApp in China.
Indian embassy officials from Shanghai and Beijing eventually intervened and assisted her. She was allowed to leave the airport around 10:30 pm.
Thongdok said, “We are part of India… We speak shuddh Hindi; we don’t understand a word of Chinese. I want to raise awareness that people from the Northeast should not be harassed like this or told we’re not part of our own country. I request the Government of India to take this up diplomatically—this is not something a regular citizen can resolve.”
After returning, she wrote to senior Indian authorities—including the Ministry of External Affairs, the Prime Minister’s Office, the Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister and the Foreign Secretary—asking that such incidents not be repeated. She suggested the episode might have been a deliberate attempt by Chinese officials to harass Indian citizens, particularly those from Arunachal Pradesh, noting that it happened on a weekend when official intervention would be more difficult. “I’m grateful to the Indian embassy team who finally helped me get out,” she said.
She had also posted her account on X, tagging government leaders including Kiren Rijiju and the Prime Minister’s Office. She wrote: “I was held at Shanghai airport for over 18 hours on 21st Nov 2025. China immigration and China Eastern Air said my Indian passport was invalid because my birthplace is Arunachal Pradesh, which they claimed is Chinese territory.”
India issues strong protest
Official sources confirmed that a “strong demarche was made with the Chinese side” both in Beijing and in Delhi on the same day. The Indian Consulate in Shanghai also took up the matter locally and provided full assistance to the stranded passenger.
Sources stressed that Arunachal Pradesh is “indisputably Indian territory,” calling the grounds for Thongdok’s detention “ludicrous.” They added that China’s actions contravened the Chicago and Montreal Conventions on civil aviation.
“At a time when both sides are working to restore normalcy in bilateral ties, such actions by the Chinese side create unnecessary obstructions,” they said.
