Roula Khalaf
Thousands of Chinese engineers and technicians are struggling to obtain Indian visas, highlighting a bottleneck in the process and a potential hurdle in India’s push to become a major “China plus one” manufacturing nation.
“The flow of skills critical for the development of the electronics industry has halted,” said Pankaj Mohindroo, chair of the India Cellular & Electronics Association. Thousands of Chinese citizens have had their business and employment visa applications rejected over the past two to three years, he said, with many others not applying for “fear of rejection”.
India in 2020 put in place some of Asia’s strictest curbs on Chinese business, against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic and deadly border clashes in the Himalayas that killed at least 24 Indian and Chinese troops.
The external affairs and home affairs ministries, which oversee visa provision in India, did not respond to requests for comment about the reported backlog.
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