New Delhi/Shanghai, November 25, 2025 – In a stark display of geopolitical tensions spilling into everyday travel, an Indian woman from Arunachal Pradesh endured nearly 18 hours of harassment and detention at Shanghai's Pudong International Airport, where Chinese immigration officials invalidated her passport, mocked her identity, and insisted the northeastern state is Chinese territory. The incident, which unfolded on November 21 during a routine transit, has drawn sharp condemnation from Indian officials and former diplomats, with New Delhi lodging a formal protest against Beijing.
Prema Wangjom Thongdok, a 14-year UK resident originally from Arunachal Pradesh, was en route from London's Gatwick Airport to Japan when the ordeal began. After clearing e-gates without issue, she was abruptly singled out from the queue by immigration staff. Officials declared her Indian passport "invalid" upon spotting Arunachal Pradesh listed as her birthplace, repeatedly asserting, "Arunachal is not part of India—it's China," and "You're Chinese, you're not Indian." Thongdok recounted being laughed at and mocked, with one officer suggesting she apply for a Chinese passport instead.
"They pulled me aside and started questioning me aggressively. I tried to explain, but they just kept saying Arunachal is China," Thongdok told ANI in an interview after her release. "We are part of India... We speak 'shuddh Hindi', we don't understand a C of Chinese. This is humiliating." Stranded without access to WiFi, WhatsApp, or Google—platforms restricted in China—she was unable to contact family or friends for hours. The detention dragged into the night, with Thongdok finally boarding her connecting flight around 10:30 PM local time, thanks to swift intervention by Indian embassy officials in Shanghai and Beijing.
Thongdok, who had transited through Shanghai multiple times before without incident, suspects the harassment was deliberate. "It happened on a Friday evening when government offices are closed—maybe a tactic to hassle Indians, especially from Arunachal, knowing help might be delayed," she posted on X (formerly Twitter), tagging Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Arunachal Chief Minister Pema Khandu, and others. She had even consulted the Chinese embassy in London prior to travel, which confirmed no transit visa was needed for her layover.
India's response was immediate and firm. A strong demarche was issued to Chinese authorities in both Beijing and New Delhi on the day of the incident, with the Shanghai consulate providing on-ground assistance. "Arunachal Pradesh is indisputably Indian territory, and its residents are perfectly entitled to hold and travel with Indian passports," sources told ANI, labeling the officials' actions "ludicrous" and a violation of international civil aviation conventions like the Chicago and Montreal agreements. The protest underscored that such episodes create "unnecessary obstructions" to normalizing bilateral ties, amid ongoing border disputes along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
Former Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal, a veteran diplomat and current Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University, decried the episode as a blatant politicization of routine immigration procedures. In a post on X, Sibal wrote: "What Chinese immigration has done is unacceptable. It is not for the immigration authorities to play politics of this kind. It is all the more objectionable as the lady has transited through Shanghai earlier without difficulty. This shows the pervasiveness of official Chinese hostile sentiments towards India." His remarks echo broader concerns over China's territorial claims on Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing refers to as "South Tibet," a flashpoint in India-China relations exacerbated by the 2020 Galwan Valley clash.
The incident has ignited outrage on social media, with users from Northeast India sharing stories of similar profiling and calling for stricter travel advisories. Arunachal Chief Minister Pema Khandu, responding to Thongdok's post, assured that the state government is coordinating with the Centre for a diplomatic resolution. "No Indian should face such indignity abroad," he wrote.
This is not the first time Chinese officials have targeted Arunachali travelers. In 2017, a group of students from the state faced visa denials on similar grounds, prompting protests. Experts view the Shanghai episode as a microcosm of deeper frictions: despite recent thaw talks post-LAC disengagements, China's aggressive cartographic assertions— including renaming places in Arunachal—continue to strain ties.
As Thongdok urged in her email to the Ministry of External Affairs and Prime Minister's Office: "I would like the government of India to raise this on a diplomatic level... This is not something a regular citizen can resolve." With India-China border negotiations ongoing, her plea highlights the human cost of unresolved disputes, far from the negotiation tables.
The Indian embassy in Beijing has yet to issue a public statement, but sources confirm ongoing monitoring to prevent recurrences. Travelers from border states are advised to double-check transit rules amid escalating sensitivities.
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