After 5 decades in India, Chinese soldier returns home

Fifty four years after crossing the border 'inadvertently' in the darkness, a Chinese soldier on Saturday finally returned to his home. Wang Qi, 77, had lost his way in the treacherous mountains in 1963 in the eastern frontier, soon after the Sino-Indian war. After serving sentence, he stayed back and raised family in India.

"Wang Qi and his family members arrived in Beijing a short while ago. They were received by Chinese officials and the provincial government of Shaanxi province," announced the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Vikas Swarup.

The aging soldier left India along with his son Vishnu Wang, daughter-in-law Neha and granddaughter Khanak Wang from Delhi airport. His Indian wife Shushila didn't accompany the family. MEA officials here said the Wang and family members will be later flown to Xian, the capital of Shaanxi province from where he will be taken to his native village Xue Zhai Nan Cun in the province.

His return became a possibility after India and China worked out modalities for both Wang and his Indian family to travel together to China, and later return as per their wish.

Wang was caught when he entered the Indian territory shortly after the Sino-India War of 1962. After his release from prison in 1969, instead of returning to China, he settled in Tirodi village of Balaghat district in Madhya Pradesh. He has been in news for many years. But a latest documentary by the BBC TV highlighting his plight got viral in Chinese social media, prompting Beijing to coordinate with India to facilitate his return. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said on February 6 that he was provided a passport to travel to China in 2013. He was also paid a living allowance.

While the Chinese government has provided travel papers for him and his family, India has provided a re-entry visa for Wang to return back if he chooses to. The development has struck a positive note in the relation between the two countries at a time, when they are at the lowest ebb with China blocking India's entry into Nuclear Suppliers Group and opposing listing of JeM leader Masood Azhar as terrorist by UN.

Before leaving for Beijing, Vishnu, Wang Qi's son, told media in India on Saturday, "My father joined the Chinese Army in 1960, and he entered India through the eastern frontier after losing his way in the darkness one night." He landed in Assam where an Indian Red Cross team handed him over to the Indian Army on January 1, 1963.

PTI reported from Beijing that Wang became emotional as he landed at the airport. He hugged his relatives, their first reunion after he crossed into Indian side over five decades ago. "It was an emotional reunion," an official present at the Beijing airport said.

"My father spent six years in prisons in Assam, Ajmer and Delhi before the Punjab and Haryana High Court ordered his release in March 1969," Vishnu said. "The Indian government had promised to the court that it will rehabilitate my father. He was taken to Delhi, Bhopal, Jabalpur and then finally handed over to Balaghat police," said his son.

Wang started working as a watchman with a mill. Soon his colleagues named him Raj Bahadur, apparently due to his Nepali features, Vishnu said. Wang's mother died in 2006, but he could not be with his family in the time of grief, Vishnu said. Three years later he met his nephew Yun Chun, who had come to India as a tourist and narrated his ordeal to him.