【按：作者Shi Lancha是中国科学技术大学风云学会研究员，南亚研究专家。此文于1月25日发表在《环球时报》英文版上：http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/965535.shtml?from=groupmessage&isappinstalled=0。印度的签证体系低效而且恐华，给许多中国人到印度开会和经商造成了极大的不便。不过这种局面正在发生变化……】

Illustration: Shen Lan/GT

The world is becoming a global village inwhich people are traveling beyond borders like never before. However, thebilateral exchanges between India and China have long been small compared tothe size of the two countries, which together account for more than a third ofthe world's total population. According to an Indian official, in 2013 only680,000 Indian nationals went to China, which even less Chinese of just 175,000made the reverse journey. These numbers could hardly reflect the increasingpolitical and economic importance attached to the relations between the Asiangiants.

Among other things, India's Byzantine visaregime as well as its cumbersome and delayed procedures are a major challengefor foreign tourists. As a result, India only saw 6.5 million tourists in 2012despite its amazing landscape, enormous population and vast territory, whereastiny Dubai, with a fraction of the landmass and people of India, attracted morethan double that amount every year.

When it comes to China, India's diplomaticdistrust results from the border warfare back in the 1960s and the lingeringdisputes add an extra layer of complicity. This has rendered China a particulartarget for the recalcitrant Indian officials. For example, India's securityestablishments were explicitly against extending a more accessible visa toChinese citizens, fearing the latter's "espionage" and "visamisuses" might compromise India's security.

Fortunately, Prime Minister Narendra Modioverruled these objections and announced a trailblazing visa scheme for Chinesetourists in May 2015, streamlining the process with online application andquick authorization. This move has brought new dynamics to the bilateralrelations almost immediately. For example, tourist arrived in India on e-visaincreased from a mere 2,705 during October 2014 to 56,477 in October 2015,registering an astonishing growth of 1,950.9 percent. Among more than 100countries eligible for India's e-tourist visas, China was one of the top 10contributors, accounting for almost 3 percent of this incredible four-digitalgrowth.

The new tourist visa scheme has madeimpressive inroads, but the Sino-Indian visa regime was still far away fromideal. Chinese nationals' conference and business visas to India, for example,still feature overcautious arrangements and rampant procrastination.

As these visas required approval fromIndia's Ministry of Home Affairs on a case-by-case basis, the process has beenlargely ambiguous and subject to hidden and arbitrary rules. Besides virtuallyendless checklists of supporting documents, Chinese scholars and businessmenoften have to wait for a very long period of time and, if fortunate enough, gettheir visa only shortly before the intended date of departure. Many of them aresimply not lucky enough to have their visas approved and miss the business oracademic event all together.

The burdensome procedures and seeminglyarbitrary nature of India's visa regime have become a visible bottleneck forthe two to widen their cooperation and interaction. As China puts forward its"One Belt, One Road" initiative, regional and country studies havegained great popularity in top Chinese universities. However, when it comes toIndian as well as South Asian studies, these universities are very reluctant,because many of them had undergone great frustrations in forming partnershipswith their Indian counterparts or sending their scholars and students there.

For instance, in the academic conference ofKumarajiva 2011 held in Delhi, only half of the Chinese scholars invited werelucky enough to eventually be present, whereas the other half were eitherdenied academic visas or delayed.

In the same vein, tired of applying forbusiness visas, many Chinese businessmen simply use tourist visas instead. Howeverconvenient it may be, this kind of practice often deprives these businessmen ofthe legal protections they should be entitled to. As New Delhi pursues theambitious "Make In India" strategy while China is in a position tomove its world-class production capacities abroad, India's intransigent visabureaucracy may backfire badly as it hurts itself more than it bothers China.

Every cloud has a silver lining. As aseries of recent events have played out, India's visa regime vis-à-vis Chinamay once again undergo major transformation. India's intelligence agencies andsecurity establishment have long been hardliners on the issue. However, eventhey seemed to loosen their footing at the end of the day.

In November 2015, Rajnath Singh becameIndia's first union home minister to visit China in a decade. After he metChinese Premier Li Keqiang and theMinister of Public Security, GuoShengkun, both sides agreed to form a ministerial-level conferencemechanism to gear up interaction concerning the security-related fields.

While boundary disputes and the historicalepisode demand careful management and are unlikely to be solved shortly, it iswise for both capitals to look beyond and explore the new possibilities. Justas Modi braved objections to free up e-tourist visa for Chinese nationals, italso takes courage to break the time-honored intransigence of the securityestablishment. With both Asia giants determined to deepen the securitycooperation, a more user-friendly visa regime is actually the low hangingfruit. After all, visa rules should be reflective of changing political andeconomic realities.

The author is a visiting scholar atTsinghua University. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn

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