Indian and Chinese flags. , Photo credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto
WHen, on the morning of April 4th, 2023, I received a call from the Chinese Foreign Ministry informing me that my journalist visa was frozen, my first thoughts had nothing to do with the overarching significance of the two most populous countries in the world expelling each other’s journalists. Matters came to the mind of more pedestrians. what will happen to my cat? And my stuff in my Beijing apartment? Will my daughter be able to finish her term at school and say goodbye to her classmates? Such questions to which I do not have clear answers even after two months have passed.
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For journalists caught in the crossfire of a media war, geopolitics can hit close to home. Since 2020, more than a dozen journalists have been effectively expelled for not renewing their visas – three Indian journalists in China and the rest in India. For the journalists involved, careless headlines about journalists being kicked out meant a sudden departure home (in the case of the two Indian journalists, this was also not possible as Beijing immediately froze their visas and barred them from returning to China). even to pack up), pulling children out of school in the middle of term, or prolonged family separations due to visa uncertainties. Thanks to the expulsions, now only one reporter from each country remains on the other side of the border. This number may soon be zero. The last Chinese reporter in India is waiting for the renewal of his visa. Should it be rejected, China has said the last Indian reporter in Beijing would have to leave the country.
How did it come to this? The current dispute began in 2017 with New Delhi deciding to issue only three-month visas for Chinese journalists. The Indian government has not publicly given any explanation for this, but the move follows the expulsion of three Chinese journalists after they visited a Tibetan settlement in India without obtaining necessary permission from the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The three-month visa was designed to deter Chinese journalists from traveling, as their passports were always held up in an endless cycle of submissions and renewals. It also meant that Chinese journalists in India had trouble renting apartments or opening bank accounts. Many of them returned to China as daily life in India became impossible.
China also bears its share of blame. In early 2020, the Chinese government suddenly stopped issuing new visas to Indian journalists, leaving the number stagnant at three. This led to an apparent mismatch, as 14 Chinese reporters were present in India at the time. In New Delhi’s view, this made it impossible for Chinese journalists to continue to have a presence in India. Thus, the evictions began. But when China finally started granting visas in 2022, New Delhi continued the expulsions, giving no reason.
Where do both sides go from here? And what reporter on the ground?
From my own decade-long perspective in China, being on the ground, even in a country where access to officials in the Xi Jinping era has been more restrictive than ever, gives journalists a texture of a country otherwise impossible to understand – a texture gleaned even from conversations with laymen or company officials. Official access isn’t everything.
Distance gives rise to misunderstandings. In China’s state-controlled media, Dispatches may obey the dictates of the Communist Party, but I’ve heard from long-time Chinese journalists in India how their time there was eye-opening and negative stereotypes created on Chinese social media was away. I know of journalists who have returned to China and forged close ties – for example, by starting Indian film or culture clubs. Small initiatives, perhaps, but you’ve got to start somewhere.
Neither New Delhi nor Beijing is going to benefit from involving journalists in their big disputes. What is needed now is a political settlement that separates the work of the press from diplomatic lines. However, this remains an unlikely possibility. The media war is likely to continue, although there is no winner.
ananth.krishnan@thehindu.co.in