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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Woman threatens to end life as police official refuses to accept love proposal, FIR registered
Bengaluru (PTI): A woman was booked on charges of obstructing a police inspector from discharging his official duties and threatening to commit suicide if he did not accept her love proposal, police said on Wednesday.
The 45-year-old inspector attached to the Ramamurthy Nagar Police Station here alleged that the woman repeatedly harassed him, they said.
According to his complaint, the harassment began on October 30, when he started receiving calls from an unknown woman from multiple phone numbers.
During these calls, she allegedly spoke incoherently and claimed to have close links with several highly placed individuals, including the Chief Minister, Deputy CM, Home Minister and other political leaders.
Police said the woman sent photographs via WhatsApp purportedly showing herself with these dignitaries and claimed she could use their influence to compel the inspector to accept her proposal. She also allegedly threatened to use her contacts against him if he refused.
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The inspector said that he advised her to visit the police station and submit a written complaint if she had any grievance. However, she did not do so and instead continued to repeatedly call and send messages, which disturbed his official duties, the FIR said.
According to the FIR, on November 7, the woman allegedly visited his office and handed over an envelope containing some tablets along with handwritten letters. The letters contained emotionally charged and inappropriate content, and the woman claimed they were written using her blood, indicating obsessive behaviour.
Despite being clearly informed that the number she was contacting was an official departmental number meant for public service, she allegedly continued making unnecessary calls and messages, causing mental harassment and obstruction to his day-to-day duties, he alleged.
During the inquiry, police learnt that the woman had allegedly exhibited similar behaviour with other police and government officials in the past, it stated.
On December 12, she allegedly went to his police station and shouted and threatened to commit suicide and ruin the inspector's career if he did not respond to her proposal, prompting him to lodge a complaint.
"Based on the complaint, a case was registered against the woman under Sections 132 (assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from discharge of duty), 351(2) (criminal intimidation) and 221 (obstructing a public servant in discharge of public functions) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita at the Ramamurthy Nagar Police Station. The matter is under investigation," police said.
