No visas for Chinese dissidents

After cancelling Chinese dissident and Uyghur activist Dolkun Isa’s visa, India has now denied visas to Chinese dissidents Lu Jinghua from New York and Ray Wong from Hong Kong, who were to attend a conference in Dharamsala on China and democracy, in what is seen as a clear signal that it does not want to annoy Beijing.

Government sources, however, said the visas were denied due to “inconsistencies” in the documentation of the two dissidents, Lu Jinghua and Ray Wong. Also, anxious to dispel the notion that India bowed to Chinese pressure on Dolkun Isa, New Delhi Thursday defended its decision to cancel his visa, saying Isa had “suppressed” the fact that he would attend a conference while seeking a tourist visa, but admitted China had made its clear to New Delhi that it should honour the Interpol “red corner” notice against him. India is also keen not to annoy China at this juncture, with a visit by President Pranab Mukherjee to China likely in the near future.

“As far as Lu Jinghua is concerned, her documents were illegible and there was inconsistency with the purpose of her visit. As far as Ray Wong is concerned, there was data inconsistency in his documents. As such visas were not issued to both these individuals, so the question of revocation doesn’t arise,” a government source said.

Lu is a well-known Tiananmen activist, while Ray is a prominent Hong Kong dissident. Some media reports said Lu had apparently claimed she was told that her visa was cancelled and she was stopped from boarding an Air India flight from New York. She also claimed she got an email confirmation for an electronic visa.

Earlier this week, the visa to Dolkun Isa, a leader of the World Uyghur Congress, who lives in Germany and had been invited to the conference this week organised by the US-based “Initiatives for China”, was cancelled.

“Isa applied for a tourist visa under the electronic travel authorisation system. He was accordingly granted the visa. After obtaining the visa, Isa said publicly that he was coming to attend a conference in India. A fact which was suppressed in the visa form and something that a tourist visa does not permit. Furthermore, it came to the notice of the authorities that Isa was the subject of a Interpol red corner notice,” MEA spokesman Vikas Swarup said.

Asked if China had raised objections to an Indian visa for Mr Isa, he said: “They made their position clear that Isa has a Interpol red corner notice and all countries which are member of Interpol should honour that.”

The spokesman rejected the charge that the revoking of the visa was done under Chinese pressure, saying the facts were “suppressed” by Isa and that led to revocation of his visa and no other “meaning” should be read into it. Visa policies are very clear and if a bona fide applicant obtains a visa based on furnishing correct information and after following the due process, there will be no cause for any revocation, he added.

India is, however, keen to maintain good ties with China and not ruffle its feathers despite the Chinese action at the UN to block India’s move to get JeM mastermind Masood Azhar banned. Defence minister Manohar Parrikar and national security adviser Ajit Doval had recently visited China. PTI reported that China had told India it wants to resolve the boundary dispute as soon as possible, the way it claims to have done with 12 other neighbours. This was reportedly conveyed to Mr Doval by Chinese NSA Yang Jiechi as they met in Beijing last week at the 19th round of the boundary talks. The Chinese side reportedly said they had resolved boundary disputes with 12 countries and were keen to settle all differences with India once for all and as soon as possible, sources were cited as saying.