Even though Beijing abolished a visa prohibition for Indian professionals and their families last month, there is still no word on the restart of air services to India. China had banned international flights for two years owing of the Covid-19 outbreak.
According to state media here, China is further streamlining procedures for visitors after cutting the quarantine duration for inbound travelers from the previous 2-day isolation to 7 days in designated hotels followed by 3-days of isolation at home.
The state-run media hailed the policy’s massive increase in flights connecting China with other nations, particularly the US, and the number of people leaving the country, promoting it as evidence of China progressively reopening its borders to the rest of the world.
The announcement of policies to simplify entry procedures into the Chinese mainland by its embassies and consulates in 125 nations marked one of China’s most significant changes since the COVID-19 pandemic, it said, adding that 2,025 inbound passenger flights were scheduled to resume from early this week.
According to the statement, there haven’t been any scheduled flights between China and India since November 2020 and none have been announced as of yet.
For Indian professionals and their families who have been stuck in China for more than two years, Beijing last month overturned a two-year visa ban. However, getting to China remained difficult because there are no flights between the two countries.
A list of hundreds of Indian students who wish to return home and reenroll in their colleges is also being processed in China.
According to reports, around 23,000 Indian students, most of whom are studying medical, are stranded abroad because of COVID visa restrictions. China requested the names of students who wanted to return right away to continue their studies, and India responded with a list of several hundred pupils.
In the past several weeks, charter flights carrying stranded students from Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Russia, and other nations have begun to arrive. According to reports, Beijing is examining the student lists for India.
While this is going on, those Indian professionals and their families who started applying for Chinese visas in India to travel back to China complain that there are no flights there.
They claim that traveling through third world countries is prohibitively expensive.
Officials claim that restricted flights between the two nations are also being discussed.
