Row between India and China after air passenger detained | Global News Podcast

Welcome to the Global News podcast on. YouTube, where we go behind the. headlines of a story and tell you why it. really matters. On this episode, we. discuss why one woman's detention in. Shanghai has fueled a diplomatic row. between Beijing and Delhi. Pemma Jong. Thong, an Indian citizen living in the. UK, was detained by immigration. officials while traveling from London to. Japan via Shanghai last Friday because. her passport lists her birthplace as the. northeastern Indian state of Arunal. Pradesh. China disputes India's claim.

over the region and considers Arunell. its territory calling it south Tibet. Now this is something India firmly. rejects. So why has this area been a. subject of such a dispute between two of. Asia's biggest countries and how likely. is it that it's going to be resolved. going forward? To discuss this I'm. joined by our South Asia regional expert. Ambarasan Eajan who joins me down the. line. So Anarasan just give us a bit of. background and context as to what's. happened.

>> Now uh this Indian woman she traveled to. uh Japan via Shangai last Friday and Mr. Tong Dog says that she was detained at. Shangai airport without any reason and. the birthplace mentioned in the passport. was Arunachal Pradesh. It is a. northeastern state of India and this has. been an issue going on between China and. India for decades. And as you said, you. know, India claims Yunachal Pradesh. state. It is in Indian control. But.

China has also been making claims over. this territory and the two countries. fought a brief war in 1962. Now this has triggered a diplomatic row. between Delhi and Beijing because this. made a headlines across India and also. on social media and M. The thongdoc says. that she was detained for several hours. and then after the Indian consular. officials came to the airport and spoke.

to the Chinese officials then she was. allowed to travel. Now, China calls this. as South Tibet and India says that it. has always been an Indian territory and. this was all based on 1914 during the. colonial period. There was a line drawn. uh it's called Makmahon line and which. China doesn't accept. Now this has now. triggered another row because the two. countries have been having very tense. relations from 2020 when there was a.

clash in the Ladak region and things. started improving for the past year when. both countries were trying to reset. relations. Now the Indian foreign. ministry took strong objection to the. detention of uh Miss Thongdoc saying. that you know uh the Chinese authorities. have still not been able to explain. their actions which are in violation of. several conventions governing. international air travel and the foreign. ministry spokesperson described the.

detention as arbitrary and said the. issue had been taken up strongly with. China. At the same time, the Chinese. foreign ministry officials are saying. that they deny uh having detained her. and they say that local laws and. regulations were followed and at the. same time they also say uh China never. accepted the illegal uh Arunachal. Pradesh because they say it is part of. China. So they they claim the whole of. Arnachal Pradesh as part of China. So.

this has triggered another round of. diplomatic tensions between the two. countries. Sbras and this is obviously a. region which has been disputed for quite. some time. You know it well. You've. actually visited it before. So what did. you see when you were there and and just. talk to us about why it's such a key. area in that particular region? >> Now we have to understand this in this. context of a broader India China border. tensions and border dispute. India and. China they are the two big Asian powers.

They share a border of more than 3,400. kilometers starting from in the Ladak. region in the Himalayas going all the. way up to Arunachal Pradesh close to. Myanmar and most of it is undemarced and. they have overlapping territorial. claims. So this has led to uh border. frictions over the years. As I said. earlier, there was even a brief border. war in 1962. in which China defeated India and then.

they unilaterally pulled out. So since. then the both sides have held various. rounds of negotiations if I can recolct. in 1996 one of the talks I was covering. in Delhi. uh so they had like for more. than 30 years I've been following this. India China relations but you know the. economic growth you know both countries. were focusing so the border issue was. put at the back burner uh for nearly 25. years and then it all flat up in 2020.

June in the Ladak region in the northern. part of India where a clash between the. two sides killed about 20 Indian. soldiers and four Chinese troops that. triggered a massive tensions both sides. es amassed the troops. More than 50,000. troops on both sides were deployed and. the tensions were running high and they. also moved u heavy weapons along the. border. Now in the past one year they. have been talking and there were several. rounds of talks between the two sides.

and the border patrolling have received. They say that they have reached an. understanding uh but still the troops. are there on both sides. It's an eyeball. to eyeball situation. For example, in. Arunachal Pradesh, these border post can. be like a bit less than 100 to you know. few hundred meters. So they are in an. eyeball to eyeball situation. And I was. in Arunachal Pradesh a couple of years. ago. the state as a you know regional. government and they are very much uh. part of India and whereas you just go.

across the border post that is Tibet. where Chinese have a master troops and. they say that you know this is part of. uh the southern Tibet so this has been. an issue but what the both countries are. saying is that okay you know this is a. longunning dispute this has to go. through various discussions and. diplomatic level talks they cannot be. resolved Now this is something for the. future. So the people there they are you. know normal getting along with their. lives but you also see a lot of.

developmental work and both sides are. building what they call border villages. along Arunachal Pradesh India as well as. China and some of the areas are very. remote. One of the areas I went was. Chumigati holy waterfalls. This is uh. very important for Buddhists. uh it. considers a very uh significant. religious site and it was just on the. border between uh India and China across. the uh Makmahan line. So you always see.

uh various troop movements, army trucks. going on. You have several army camps, Indian army camps in these areas. uh but. then people there when I speak to them. they were you know getting along despite. this you know massive presence of two of. their biggest armies people know getting. along with their regular lives and it is. also very inhospitable territory some of. the areas are more than 13,000 15,000 ft. and uh so this has been a you know major.

bone of contention between India and. China so this women's experience has. brought light once again how a smaller. issue can trigger even a diplomatic. route. >> So Ambassan, let's finish off with the. relationship between China and India. The two leaders have seemed to get along. when they've met up in person. Uh. recently there seems to be more air. traffic flow between the two countries. as well, airports opening up. Um how. likely is this spat going to continue. for and can this be resolved quickly.

because it seems as though the two. countries are getting along a bit better. now? Yeah, this came as a bit of a surprise. for many people because for the past two. years both governments have been taking. concrete steps to restore ties. Uh we. should not forget that China is one of. the biggest trading partners of India. Several Indian factories, Indian. manufacturers that depend on uh Chinese. goods and at the same time uh what we.

are looking at is step by step they're. improving relations. They realize that. you know there's a conflict is not a way. to go around. That is what both leaders. have been saying. Now what they want is. to restore relations and that's why you. see the flight services resuming but. this can be solved diplomatically but it. depends on how the two countries want to. take this forward. >> I'm Ras Rajan our South Asia regional. expert. Thank you so much for your time. If you enjoyed this story or other world. stories, then do check out our global.

news podcast which you can download from. wherever you get your podcast from. And. please do give this episode a like and. subscribe to our BBC News YouTube. channel. We really appreciate it. And of. course, drop us a comment below. If. there are any stories you'd love us to. cover and you think that we could do. more of, then we'd be happy to do so. Thank you so much for your company.