India quietly resumes tourist visas for Chinese citizens after five-year freeze
New Delhi: India has resumed issuing tourist visas to Chinese nationals, ending a five-year freeze triggered first by the Covid-19 pandemic and later prolonged by the deadly Galwan Valley clash in June 2020. The decision, however, was made public not through Indian government channels, but via a low-key announcement by the Indian embassy in China, exclusively in Mandarin, on the Chinese microblogging site Weibo.
As of Wednesday, there was no mention of the resumption on the Indian embassy’s website or the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) portal. According to China’s Global Times, Indian tourist visas for Chinese citizens are now available again starting July 24, 2025, through Indian Visa Application Centres in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Applicants must complete an online form, schedule an appointment, and submit documents in person.
The Chinese foreign ministry welcomed the move. Spokesperson Guo Jiakun said, “We take note of this positive move. Easing cross-border travel is widely beneficial. China will maintain communication and consultation with India to further facilitate travel between the two countries.”
India had suspended Chinese tourist visas in early 2020 when the pandemic began, and extended the freeze in the aftermath of the June 15, 2020 Galwan clash, in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed. China had also imposed its own restrictions on foreign travellers during the pandemic but partially lifted them in 2022 for Indian students and business travellers.
Earlier this year, Chinese ambassador Xu Feihong had stated that more than 50,000 visas had been issued to Indian citizens since March 2025, with several relaxed norms including the removal of mandatory online appointments and biometric data collection for short-term travel.
In 2019, before the pandemic and the Galwan standoff, India had received approximately 1.31 crore foreign tourists, over 3 lakh of them from China.
The resumption of tourist visas is being seen as part of an incremental but deliberate shift toward restoring pre-2020 normalcy in India-China relations. After years of stalemate, significant diplomatic progress was achieved in October 2024, with the resolution of border tensions at Demchok and Depsang. That paved the way for a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping in Kazan, Russia.
External affairs minister S. Jaishankar, who recently visited China for the first time since the Galwan clash to attend the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers meeting, remarked that disengagement in border areas had laid the groundwork for improving ties. “Measures towards normalising our people-to-people exchanges can certainly foster mutually beneficial cooperation,” he said.
In addition to visa resumption, Beijing recently reopened the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra route after five years and is reportedly in talks with New Delhi about restarting direct commercial flights.
Despite the thaw, India maintains that resolution of the border dispute remains key to long-term peace. Still, recent moves suggest a quiet revival of the 1993 Agreement on the Maintenance of Peace and Tranquillity along the Line of Actual Control, an understanding that once allowed the broader bilateral relationship to progress even as the boundary question remained unresolved.
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AIITA welcomes Karnataka’s ban on obscene songs in school events
Bhatkal: The Karnataka unit of the All India Ideal Teachers Association (AIITA) has welcomed the Karnataka government’s decision to strictly ban school children from dancing to obscene songs during educational and cultural programmes in government, aided, and private schools across the state.
AIITA Karnataka State President M. R. Manvi congratulated the government for taking what he termed an important step to preserve the sanctity of education.
“Such decisions to safeguard the dignity of school children and uphold the values of education are the need of the hour. This rule should not be limited to government schools alone but must be strictly implemented in all private educational institutions as well,” he said.
He further urged the government to address other concerns within school programmes.
“The government should not only prohibit obscene dances in the name of school anniversaries, but also ensure that plays and dialogues that incite religious hatred are avoided. Schools should be centres of harmony, not platforms for spreading hatred,” he added.
According to a recent circular issued by the Department of School Education and Literacy, obscene dances are adversely affecting the mental health and moral values of students.
In this regard, schools have been advised to use songs that promote nationalism, positive thinking, the greatness of Kannada culture, and value-based traditions instead of inappropriate content during programmes.
The circular also emphasises that students should be dressed in decent attire.
AIITA also backed the department’s warning that disciplinary action would be taken against head teachers if such guidelines are violated. The association has further demanded that district Deputy Directors of Public Instruction strictly monitor the implementation of these rules.
