Be careful while in India, China advices its citizens amid Sikkim standoff

It is not a travel alert but advisory asking Chinese travellers to be careful, an official said

Amid bilateral tensions over the Sikkim stand-off, China on Saturday issued an advisory for its citizens travelling to India, asking them to take necessary precautions for their personal safety.

“It is not a travel alert. It is an advisory asking Chinese travellers to be careful,” an official of the Chinese foreign ministry told PTI in Beijing.

The advisory asked Chinese people travelling to India to pay close attention to the security situation and take necessary precautions.

The advisory, which is in Chinese and has Saturday’s date on it, was issued through the country’s embassy in New Delhi.

It asked Chinese travellers to pay close attention to the local security situation, improve self-protection awareness, strengthen security, reduce unnecessary travel, pay attention to personal and property safety as well as to provide advance information to family and friends.

The Chinese travellers should pay attention to the situation, keep the communication open, carry personal identification, strictly abide by the Indian laws and regulations and respect local religious customs, the advisory states.

It also provides phone numbers of the consular section of the embassy in case of emergency.

On July 5, China had said that it will decide on issuing a travel alert for Chinese citizens visiting India depending on the security situation, playing down reports in the official media asking Chinese investors to be on alert in view of the stand-off in the Sikkim section.

China and India have been engaged in the stand-off in the Doklam area near the Bhutan tri-junction for the past three weeks after a Chinese Army’s construction party attempted to build a road. Doka La is the Indian name for the region which Bhutan recognises as Dokalam, while China claims it as part of its Donglang region.

Of the 3,488-km-long India-China border from Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh, a 220-km section falls in Sikkim.