On Wednesday, it has been announced by the Indian Embassy in Beijing that India will once again issue tourist visas to Chinese citizens from 24 July 2025. This is the first time that Chinese tourists will be able to apply for a visa to come to India after five years. This is considered an important diplomatic step, as the relationship between the two countries became quite tense after the 2020 Galwan Valley Struggle.
In 2020, India suspended all tourist visa services due to the Kovid-19 epidemic. Although China opened its boundaries for Indian students and business passengers in 2022, India stopped issuing tourist visas for Chinese citizens.
Now the Indian Embassy has shared information through the Chinese social media platform Weibo and the Chinese Government Media Global Times that Chinese citizens can apply for a visa in three phases:
Fill the online application form
Take an appointment through visa portal
Passport, application form and all necessary documents should be submitted personally to the Indian visa application centers located in Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou.
If an applicant wants to withdraw the passport at the Beijing center, he will have to give a formal passport back letter.
Indication signs of improving India-China relations
This decision is considered a positive sign towards normalizing relations between India and China. Military and diplomatic tension in both countries reached its peak after a clash in the Galwan Valley in June 2020. Later, after several round of military and diplomatic dialogue, it was agreed to remove forces from some places on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) of East Ladakh. In October 2024, there was an agreement to withdraw from disputed areas such as Despong and Demchok.
The meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Kazan (Russia) was also seen as an attempt to improve relationships. In this, the two leaders discussed increasing communication and cooperation.
Contact and journey between people expected to start again
Since then, both countries have planned to restore direct air services, opening new channels of dialogues and resume religious and cultural programs such as Kailash Mansarovar Yatra. Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar said in April that the Indo-China relations are growing in “positive direction”, although it will take time to be completely normal. China’s Foreign Ministry has welcomed India’s decision and said that it sees it as a “positive development”.
After this decision, tourism, cultural exchange and business cooperation between the two most populous countries in the world are expected to be re-boosted.
