A routine three-hour layover at Shanghai Pudong Airport turned into an 18-hour ordeal for Prema Thangdok, a UK-based Indian woman originally from Arunachal Pradesh, after Chinese airport officials allegedly declared her Indian passport 'invalid' because it listed Arunachal Pradesh as her place of birth. India has issued a strong demarche to China, both in Beijing and New Delhi, condemning what it called detention on 'ludicrous grounds.'
Prema, in her 30s, has lived in the United Kingdom for 14 years and works as a financial adviser. She was travelling from London to Japan on Friday (21) with a scheduled three-hour transit in Shanghai. She said she had successfully transited through the same airport just a month earlier, on October 16, without any issue.
According to Prema, shortly after landing in Shanghai, she was singled out during security checks. “A lady came, took me out of the queue, and pointed to my passport. They told me that since it mentions Arunachal Pradesh as my birthplace, my passport is invalid because Arunachal Pradesh is ‘a part of China’,” she told The Indian Express.
She said Chinese officials mocked her, insisted she should 'get a Chinese passport,' and refused to let her board her onward flight to Japan deapite her valid visa. They held her passport, denied her access to food and information, and insisted she must return either to the UK or India. The absence of Google services in China further restricted her ability to seek help.
After several hours, she was finally allowed to make phone calls and contacted friends in the UK, who alerted the Indian Consulate in Shanghai. Within an hour, six consulate officials reached the airport, provided her food, and attempted to resolve the situation.
However, Chinese authorities refused to let her travel to Japan and insisted she could only book her departure with China Eastern Airlines. She eventually booked a flight to India via Thailand and has remained in Thailand since, working remotely.
Prema has sent a detailed email to India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), calling the treatment a “direct challenge to India’s sovereignty” and demanding that India take up the matter strongly with China. She has also sought compensation for distress, harassment, and financial loss. She said she has always retained her Indian passport by choice, adding, “I love my country and don’t want to be a foreigner in my own land.”
MEA sources said India conveyed to China that the grounds for Prema’s detention were absurd, emphasizing that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India and its residents have every right to hold and travel on Indian passports. They added that China’s actions violated international aviation norms under the Chicago and Montreal Conventions.
Officials also noted that such behaviour is counterproductive at a time when India and China are attempting to restore normalcy in bilateral relations. Actions like these, they said, “create unnecessary obstructions” in the process.
