NEW DELHI — India responded Saturday to China’s newly revised passports, which show disputed territory near their shared border as part of China, by issuing Chinese citizens visas embossed with New Delhi’s own maps.
External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said the Chinese passport map showing India’s Arunachal Pradesh state and the Himalayan region of Aksai Chin as part of China is “unacceptable.”
India retaliated by starting to issue visas to Chinese citizens with a map of India that includes all territories claimed by New Delhi.
The new passports have also upset the Philippines and Vietnam, because they show disputed parts of the South China Sea as belonging to China.
In New Delhi, China is viewed with suspicion as a longtime ally and weapons supplier to Pakistan, India’s bitter rival. For Beijing, the presence in India of the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and 120,000 other exiles from Tibet remains a source of tension.
India says China controls 16,000 square miles of its territory in Aksai Chin in Kashmir, while Beijing claims that the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh is rightfully Chinese territory.
Front Section, Pages 8 on 11/25/2012