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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article7142152.ece
A Chinese waiter has presented India with an unusual diplomatic conundrum by claiming asylum after apparently walking across the remote Himalayan border between Tibet and the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.
Guan Liang, 28, was detained in Arunachal on May 18 and is now being questioned by Home Ministry and Army Intelligence officials, T Ringu, the Superintendent of Police Special Branch in Arunachal, told The Times.
Newspapers said Mr Guan fled to India after police raided his restaurant in Beijing over e-mails he sent complaining about human rights abuses committed by the Chinese Army and police. But Mr Ringu was unable to provide further details about Mr Guan's background, how he travelled such a vast distance across China and why he chose to cross into Arunachal, one of India's most militarily sensitive states.
The case is a rare example, possibly the first ever, of a Chinese national, other than a Tibetan, seeking asylum in India. It also comes as India and China try to ease tensions over several issues, particularly China's territorial claims over Arunachal.
Pratibha Patil, the Indian President, has been in China for the past six days on the first visit there by an Indian head of state for more than a decade.
Both sides have tried to play down their differences, which include China's alleged plans to dam the Brahmaputra River, and India's recent ban on Chinese telecommunications equipment.
Relations between the two countries have been frosty ever since the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spirtual leader, fled to India and was granted refuge there in 1959. China then humiliated India in 1962 when its troops briefly occupied Arunachal and seized the region of Aksai Chin. Beijing also began to provide aid and weapons to Pakistan — India's arch enemy.
The frost had been thawing as bilateral trade expanded from $3 billion in 2000 to $51 billion in 2008. Last year, however, relations took a sudden turn for the worse with Indian reports of Chinese border incursions and cyber attacks, and Chinese protests over a visit by the Dalai Lama to Arunachal.
A Chinese waiter has presented India with an unusual diplomatic conundrum by claiming asylum after apparently walking across the remote Himalayan border between Tibet and the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.
Guan Liang, 28, was detained in Arunachal on May 18 and is now being questioned by Home Ministry and Army Intelligence officials, T Ringu, the Superintendent of Police Special Branch in Arunachal, told The Times.
Newspapers said Mr Guan fled to India after police raided his restaurant in Beijing over e-mails he sent complaining about human rights abuses committed by the Chinese Army and police. But Mr Ringu was unable to provide further details about Mr Guan's background, how he travelled such a vast distance across China and why he chose to cross into Arunachal, one of India's most militarily sensitive states.
The case is a rare example, possibly the first ever, of a Chinese national, other than a Tibetan, seeking asylum in India. It also comes as India and China try to ease tensions over several issues, particularly China's territorial claims over Arunachal.
Pratibha Patil, the Indian President, has been in China for the past six days on the first visit there by an Indian head of state for more than a decade.
Both sides have tried to play down their differences, which include China's alleged plans to dam the Brahmaputra River, and India's recent ban on Chinese telecommunications equipment.
Relations between the two countries have been frosty ever since the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spirtual leader, fled to India and was granted refuge there in 1959. China then humiliated India in 1962 when its troops briefly occupied Arunachal and seized the region of Aksai Chin. Beijing also began to provide aid and weapons to Pakistan — India's arch enemy.
The frost had been thawing as bilateral trade expanded from $3 billion in 2000 to $51 billion in 2008. Last year, however, relations took a sudden turn for the worse with Indian reports of Chinese border incursions and cyber attacks, and Chinese protests over a visit by the Dalai Lama to Arunachal.
