54 Years in India

[Randy W]

from the Shanghaiist

 

Chinese man finally returns home after being trapped in India for 54 years

 

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/alexlinder/wang_qi_homecoming8.jpghttp://shanghaiist.com/attachments/alexlinder/wang_qi_homecoming.jpg

 

In 1963, just after the conclusion of the Sino-Indian war, Wang, a Chinese army surveyor, got lost, crossed over the Indian border, and was captured by Indian authorities. He then spent the next seven years moving between a number of jails. When he was finally released, police escorted him to a remote village in central India and told him to start a life there.

While Wang has made the best of his unexpected predicament, marrying a local girl and starting a family, he has long wished to travel home to see his family in China; however, he had curiously been denied official Indian documents and citizenship time and again.

 

. . .

 

The reason why it took so long for Wang to return to China is not yet clear. But, after spending years trying to get government permission to visit his homeland, Wang can likely thank the BBC for the sudden breakthrough in his case. The news organization ran a story last month on Wang's plight, drawing international attention to the subject and setting the wheels of bureaucracy in motion.

Back in 2013, China issued a passport to Wang, and he has now been granted a one-year visa by India. Meanwhile, Wang's family members in India have been granted unusually long two-year visas to visit China, a sign of the importance that the Chinese government is attaching to this case, India Today reports.

While Wang's wife and daughter did not make the trip to China with him, he was accompanied by his son, daughter-in-law and grandson.