After India asked a Chinese journalist to leave the country, China has now forbidden two Indian journalists from returning to Beijing, according to people with knowledge of the situation. Chinese officials reportedly told Anshuman Mishra, a representative of state-run Prasar Bharati in Beijing, and Ananth Krishnan, a correspondent for The Hindu, that they should not travel back to China because their visas had been frozen. Mishra and Krishnan had both just recently visited India for private reasons. The action came after the Indian government informed a state-run Xinhua news agency correspondent based in New Delhi last month that his Indian visa would not be renewed. According to the sources, the Xinhua correspondent was instructed to return to China by March 31 and has since done so.
The decision to ask the Xinhua correspondent to return to China was made for a variety of reasons; some claimed it was because he had spent too much time in India (about six years), while others claimed it was because he had engaged in activities outside of his journalistic duties. There was no official statement regarding the developments coming from India. On Tuesday, representatives of the Chinese foreign ministry informed the two remaining Indian journalists in Beijing—KJM Varma of the Press Trust of India (PTI) and Sutirtho Patranobis of the Hindustan Times—that they could continue working for the time being. According to the individuals mentioned above, if the remaining Indian journalists leave China, they won’t be permitted to return. The people added that if the Indian side did not respond in kind regarding the issue of Chinese journalists posted in India, actions could also be taken against them.
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