From Mahnoor Makhdoom
BEIJING: :Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said on Wednesday that China would like to maintain communication with India and the Indian side would hopefully respond to its concerns and create favourable conditions for normal exchanges between media organizations of the two countries.
“I want to stress that China would like to maintain communication with India and we hope the Indian side will respond to China’s concerns and create favourable conditions for normal exchanges between media organizations of the two countries,” Mao Ning said during her regular briefing.
According to media reports, China and India have ejected a large number of each other’s journalists recently by denying visa renewals.
The spokesperson said Chinese journalists had suffered unfair and discriminatory treatment in India for a long time.
“In 2017, the Indian side shortened the period of validity of visas held by Chinese journalists in India to three months or even one month without any valid reason.”
Mao Ning said since 2020, the Indian side had refused to review and approve Chinese journalists’ applications for stationing in India.
“In December 2021, a CGTN journalist was asked with no explanation till now to leave the country within 10 days when his visa was still valid for two months and his term would not end for half a year.
“Not long ago, the Indian side refused to extend visa for the only CGTN journalist in India and currently the last Chinese journalist in India has seen his visa expired,” she added.
The spokesperson maintained that it was India who acted unreasonably against Chinese journalists, and China had to take appropriate countermeasures.
To yet another question, she informed that China had provided active facilitation and support for Indian journalists in China.
“Those journalists are friends and colleagues of you. I think you know this very well some Indian journalists have worked in China for over ten years. We would like to continue to do that. But this will be determined by whether the Indian side would like to work with China in the same direction and provide same facilitation for Chinese journalists in India,” she said.
