CCP Prevents Chinese Expats in India From Returning Home to China

An Indian window cleaner stands on a beam overlooking an Air India aircraft at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, India, on Nov. 17, 2012. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

As the epidemic in India continues to spread, many countries have made plans to evacuate their citizens. But Chinese citizens working in India are prohibited from returning to China. Chinese expats said the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) told India not to issue travel permits to Chinese citizens.

On May 6, Taiwanese media the Central News Agency (CNA) reported that a Chinese national surnamed Zhang, who works in the technology manufacturing field in India, planned to return to China for a May holiday and to escape the COVID-19 epidemic in India, but he was twice denied an e-Pass.

Due to stricter control on people’s movement in most cities in India, Zhang was required to obtain an e-Pass online in order to go outside. Zhang’s first application for the e-Pass was rejected for lack of relevant company documents proving that he was returning to China for vacation. In a second application, he submitted the required documents but was again rejected—this time without any reason given.

According to Zhang, the Chinese Embassy in India told the Indian government that the CCP temporarily refused to allow Chinese citizens to return to China and that is what actually prevented Zhang from getting the e-Pass.

Volunteers cover a dead body before transporting it to a cremation site in New Delhi, India, on May 5, 2021. Courtesy of United Sikhs

A Taiwanese citizen working in India told CNA that a mainland Chinese colleague who is a loyal patriot to the CCP became disillusioned when the CCP prevented him from returning to China and that caused him to condemn the regime—for the first time.

However, on April 30 the Chinese ambassador to India, Sun Weidong, announced in an exclusive interview with Global Times, a regime-controlled news agency, that employees of Chinese-funded enterprises, students, and other Chinese in India are in close contact with the Chinese embassy there. He said the embassy provides them with expert guidance and advice, as well as epidemic prevention materials.

According to the CNA, when it contacted various offices in the New Delhi Chinese Embassy on May 6, no one answered the phone.

Additionally, the Chinese regime has been stirring up public opinion against expats trying to return to China from India, through its state-run media Xinhua News. On May 5, Xinhua and other major Chinese news outlets reported that three Chinese expats, suspected of being infected with the Indian variant of the CCP virus, brought it back to China.

On May 6, one of the major Chinese news portals 163.com, published an article that reported the death toll in India would exceed 1 million, and that Chinese expats had fled back to China with the mutant virus. It also said Chinese and Singaporean netizens were calling to ban them from returning. The report cited numbers published by the Chinese health department–18 confirmed Chinese who returned from India infected with the Indian variant of the virus have been found in different parts of China since mid-April.

A passenger traveling from New Delhi arrives at Pearson Airport in Toronto, Canada, on April 21, 2021. The Canadian Press/Frank Gunn

By contrast, other countries have launched plans to evacuate their citizens from India. The U.S. State Department issued the highest-level travel warning at the end of April, advising U.S. citizens to leave India as soon as possible.  Nonstop flights from India to the United States continue to operate. South Korea announced on May 2 that the South Korean government will arrange special flights on May 4 and May 7 to evacuate Korean expats from India. Iraq and New Zealand are also evacuating their citizens from the virus-stricken country.

The COVID-19 outbreak in India is now spreading rapidly. Since April 21, more than 300,000 cases have been reported daily.

The CCP virus, which first started in November 2019 in China’s Wuhan City, had infected more than 155.6 million people and claimed over 3.2 million lives worldwide as of May 6. However, the numbers from countries such as China and Iran are not reliable due to a lack of transparency.