Recently, Pema Wang Thongdok, a woman from Arunachal Pradesh, India, faced harassment and detention for nearly 18 hours by Chinese immigration officials during a layover at Shanghai Pudong Airport. The reason behind her ordeal was the officials’ refusal to recognize the validity of her Indian passport.
The incident occurred on Friday, November 21, as Thongdok was traveling from London to Japan with a 3-hour layover in Shanghai. She took to social media to accuse Chinese immigration officials and Eastern Airlines staff of deeming her Indian passport “invalid” due to her birthplace being Arunachal Pradesh, a region Beijing claims as part of China.
“On November 21, 2025, I was detained by Chinese immigration and China Eastern Airlines at Shanghai Airport for over 18 hours,” she wrote. “They claimed my Indian passport is invalid because I was born in Arunachal Pradesh, which they claim is part of China.”
As a result, her passport was confiscated despite holding a valid visa, and she was prevented from boarding her flight. Confined to the airport transit area, she was denied access to airport facilities, food, and any official updates. Multiple officials mocked her and even suggested she should “apply for a Chinese passport.”
Ultimately, she was coerced into buying a new ticket operated by China Eastern Airlines in order to retrieve her passport, but the 18-hour detention resulted in significant financial losses for her.
Facing a dire situation, Thongdok reached out to the Indian Consulate in Shanghai through friends in the UK. With the consulate’s intervention, she was finally able to leave Pudong Airport late at night.
According to reports by the Indian Express, on the day of the incident, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs issued a strong diplomatic protest to the Beijing authorities and Delhi.
India stated that the detention of this passenger was “absurd” and explicitly asserted that “Arunachal Pradesh is indisputably Indian territory, and its residents have every right to hold Indian passports for travel.”
India emphasized that the actions of Chinese authorities violated the Chicago Convention and the Montreal Convention concerning civil aviation.
Sources added that such actions by China create unnecessary obstacles in the ongoing efforts to restore relations between India and China.
Thongdok described the incident as a “direct insult to Indian sovereignty” and urged Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to exert pressure on Beijing to ensure all Indian citizens from Arunachal Pradesh are protected when traveling abroad.
Previously, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs has repeatedly rejected Beijing’s “futile and absurd” attempts to rename locations in Arunachal Pradesh, which China refers to as “Southern Tibet.” A spokesperson for the Indian Ministry of External Affairs stated, “Such imaginative renaming does not alter an undeniable reality that the state has been, is, and will remain an integral part of India.”