Beijing is criticised by New Delhi for how it has treated Asian Games athletes

Arunachal Pradesh in India, a region that China claims as its own, was barred from participating in the competition in Hangzhou.

Three athletes from the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, the majority of which is the subject of a territorial claim by Beijing, were refused entry, prompting India to lodge a strong complaint with China.

Nyeman Wangsu, Onilu Tega, and Mepung Lamgu, competitors in the wushu martial arts, were denied entry onto a flight to China on Wednesday for the Asian Games, which get underway in Hangzhou on Saturday. According to Indian media, other team members who travelled via Hong Kong did so successfully.

Two of the three athletes, according to officials at the Games venue, had received e-accreditation, which functions as a visa, but were unable to download and confirm it. The third person lacked credentials.

The three martial artists were hauled back to a Sports Authority of India facility in New Delhi after failing to board the plane earlier this week. They are already there. On Sunday, the Asian Games’ wushu competition gets underway.

Arindam Bagchi, a spokesman for the Indian Foreign Ministry, denounced the “differential treatment of Indian citizens on the basis of domicile or ethnicity,” and charged the Chinese government with “discriminating” against athletes from Arunachal Pradesh.

Arunachal Pradesh “was, is, and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India,” he said, adding that China’s behaviour “violates both the spirit of the Asian Games and the rules governing their conduct.” Anurag Thakur, the minister of youth affairs and sports for India, has postponed his trip to China for the Olympics.

The charges have not been confirmed or refuted by China. The athletes were not denied a visa, according to Jizhong Wei, a vice-president of the Olympic Council of Asia, but rather were given a “different kind of visa” which they “refused to take.”

At a routine briefing of the Foreign Ministry in Beijing, spokesperson Mao Ning was asked about the group. She responded, “As the host nation, China invites athletes from all countries to the Games using legal identification. So-called “Arunachal” has never been acknowledged by the Chinese government. Zangnan is located on Chinese soil.

When the same three athletes received stapled rather than pasted visas in July of last year, the Indian Wushu team decided not to compete at the World University Games in Chengdu, China. This emphasised Beijing’s position that it does not recognise India’s claims to the territory of Arunachal Pradesh.

Arunachal Pradesh, an Indian state, and the Aksai Chin plateau are depicted as being parts of China on a new “standard map,” which prompted India to submit a protest with Beijing in August. Since May 2020, when a violent conflict between Chinese and Indian troops broke out in the Galwan Valley, resulting in the deaths of soldiers on both sides, border disputes have cast a cloud over relations between the two nations.