Prema Wangjom Thongdok, a financial advisor, hails from Rupa in Arunachal Pradesh’s West Kameng district and has been living in the UK for 14 years. On the day of the incident, she was travelling from London to Japan, with a scheduled three-hour transit in Shanghai Pudong Airport. Speaking to the media about the incident, Thongdok said that she was singled out by a Chinese immigration official during the security check for her onward China Eastern Airlines flight. When she asked the Chinese official the reason for stopping her, the official said that her Indian passport was invalid, as Arunachal Pradesh is “a part of China.”
#WATCH | Prema Wangjom Thongdok says, "I wrote an email to the Ministry of External Affairs, PMO, CM of Arunachal Pradesh, Foreign Secretary, that such an incident shouldn't happen to someone who is just a normal citizen… Just to be harassed for so many hours, I think it might… https://t.co/ULShFruY2m pic.twitter.com/cR43st9Dpi
— ANI (@ANI) November 24, 2025
“When I tried to question them and ask them what the issue was, they said, ‘Arunachal is not part of India’ and started mocking and laughing and saying things like ‘you should apply for the Chinese passport, you’re Chinese, you’re not Indian’… I have transited through Shanghai in the past with no issues at all. I couldn’t get in touch with my family for a very long time,” Thongdok said, adding that she had no access to food or phone for hours. “I was held at the airport for 18 hours, after I had already travelled 12 hours from London. They kept my passport and didn’t let me leave. I didn’t have access to food. Because there is no Google [in China], I didn’t have access to information either. They refused to let me travel on to Japan even though I had a valid visa for Japan. They insisted that I have to either fly back to the UK or fly to India,” she said.
Thongdok was able to leave after the intervention of officials from the Indian consulate in Shanghai
“That was a very humiliating, questionable behaviour from the immigration staff as well as the airline staff… I called up the Shanghai and Beijing Indian embassies, and within an hour, the Indian officials came to the airport, got me some food, spoke through the issues with them and helped me get out of the country. A very long ordeal, 18 hours, but glad that I’m out of there…” the woman added.
After being held at the airport for several hours, the woman demanded access to a phone and her lawyer. She was finally able to call her friends in the UK, who helped her connect with the Indian consulate in Shanghai. Officials from the Indian consulate arrived within an hour and helped her get out of the situation. “After I got in touch with the consulate, six officials from there arrived at the airport within an hour and brought me food. They tried to get them to let me travel onward to Japan, but they refused to allow that. They also insisted that I only book my flight out with China Eastern Airlines. I finally booked a flight to India with a transit stop in Thailand, and have stayed back in Thailand now, and am working remotely from there,” she said.
I have not given up my Indian passport because I love my country: Thongdok
She informed the Ministry of External Affairs about the incident by writing an email detailing her experience. In the email, she mentioned how the Chinese officials declared her passport invalid, which was a “direct challenge to India’s sovereignty and deeply distressing to any Indian citizen”. “A bilateral or geopolitical matter was misdirected at a private Indian citizen, which should never occur in any international transit setting,” she wrote in the email. She urged the Indian authorities to raise the matter with the Chinese government and demanded compensation for “harassment, distress, and physical and mental suffering” as well as “financial losses” caused to her by the Chinese officials.
“Despite being in the UK for so many years, I have not given up my Indian passport because I love my country and don’t want to be a foreigner in my own land, though I probably would not have had an experience like this if I had a British passport,” Thongdok said.
China has long been trying to claim the Indian territory in Arunachal Pradesh. To intimidate India, the country has been developing infrastructure in the area close to the part of the India-China border in Arunachal Pradesh as a pressure tactic.
