“Illegal and outrageous detention of Indian passenger in Shanghai shows India’s strategy of ‘managing’ China is not working”, First Post, November 29, 2025
“Since last October, India and China have been inching towards restoring of normalcy in bilateral ties through a series of calibrated confidence-building measures and high-level engagements. The illegal and arbitrary detention of Prema Wangjom Thongdok, a UK-based Indian citizen from Arunachal Pradesh at Shanghai airport shows all assumptions of a ‘thaw’ in relationship is premature, hollow and might even be illusory.
The detention wasn’t an administrative oversight. It was an audacious play and a calculated slight aimed at humiliating an Indian citizen and challenging the sovereignty of India. Beijing wanted to send multiple messages. It wanted to tell New Delhi that it controls the levers of the ties, that this is not a relationship between equals, and peace and tranquility in the border regions is not the result of a compact between two sovereigns but an ‘act of magnanimity’ extended by China that it can dial up or down when it wishes to.
The extraordinary circumstances of mocking an Indian citizen for her passport, laughing and saying things like, “You should apply for the Chinese passport; you’re Chinese; you’re not Indian…”, signifies contempt for India’s sovereign claim over its own land. The Communist Party of China is a not a reckless actor. It knows that not only can it get away with such behaviour, but it can also use acts like these to cumulatively shift the status quo in its favour without triggering large-scale war or a unified pushback……”
Read full article at firstpost.com
