With some 25,000 of its citizens hit by India’s new employment visa regime, China today voiced serious concern over the policy, asking New Delhi to be “considerate of the circumstances” of Chinese businesses and workers in the country’s power, telecom and petroleum sectors.
China’s Ministry of Commerce expressed its deep concern over the new policy after it received many complaints from Chinese companies in India, the state-run China Daily reported.
“We hope India will be considerate of the circumstances of Chinese firms there and provide more convenience for Chinese labourers and firms,” the paper quoted an unnamed official with the Ministry of Commerce as saying.
The visa policy, issued in mid-July, mainly affects expatriates working in India on a business visa, which previously had been allowed for a wider range of occupations and employees, the paper noted.
Approximately 25,000 Chinese workers in sectors such as power generation, communication and petroleum in India will be affected by the clampdown, it said. Chinese businesses in South Asia generated $18 billion in 2008, mostly in India, according to Chinese experts.
The Chinese foreign ministry has also warned its citizens heading to work in India to acquire employment visas first.
“Citizens cannot engage in work that does not match with their visa category,” the paper said, quoting a notice posted on the ministry’s website.
The paper quoted experts as saying that India tightened its visa policy to help curb unskilled foreign labourers, who were mainly Chinese in the infrastructure sectors.
Hu Shisheng, scholar on South Asia Studies from China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, said the financial crisis that hit India’s labour-intensive industries was the last straw that compelled the government to tighten its labour policy.
“India has a huge population of young illiterate. They can depend on nothing but their labour to earn a living. So it’s conceivable that the Indian government would want to protect its own labour force,” Hu said.
Many Chinese workers in India hold six-month visas, known as a ‘Multiple Entry Business Visa’. This has been the normal practice tolerated by the Indian government to save time on a visa application, a Chinese diplomat in India surnamed Li was quoted as saying by the paper.
A manager with Huaxia Outbound Labour Service in Jiangsu province, from where the largest number of workers in China goes abroad for work, said that about 20 native workers to India are on their way back.
“We are confident of their skills, but they had to return as they were not able to get a visa,” he said.
Pan Xiaoyong, a technician with Huawei Technologies, a major Chinese telecommunications equipment supplier, said the firm was currently staging an urgent hunt for technicians holding Indian business visas to fill up the vacancies created by the new visa policy.
