By Gaurav Sharma
Beijing, Nov 18 (IANS) China on Friday said it did not deny visa to the manager of Indian badminton team and it was he who himself cancelled the visa application.
A day after India protested the denial of visa to Bamang Tago, a resident of Arunachal Pradesh which China claims as its own, Beijing said the reports were "not in accordance with facts".
"According to what we learned that the person you have mentioned had previously gone to the Chinese embassy in India for visa application but later he himself cancelled the visa application," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said here.
"The way China issues visas to relevant people is a flexible approach adopted to facilitate exchanges between two sides pending the final settlement of boundary question," he added.
Tago, the secretary of the Arunachal Pradesh State Badminton Association, was named the manager of the Indian squad for the Thaihot China Open 2016 badminton tournament that began in Fuzhou on November 15 but reportedly denied a visa by Beijing.
According to reports, the Chinese embassy in New Delhi informed Tago that he was denied the visa because of his Arunachal domicile.
Earlier too, China has denied visa to Indian citizens from Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing claims to be southern Tibet.
(Gaurav Sharma is the IANS Beijing-based correspondent. He can be contacted at sharmagaurav71@gmail.com and gauravians@yahoo.com)
