As India's relations with China continue to get sour amid the ongoing border tensions, the Centre has decided to add extra scrutiny for visas and will also be reviewing Beijing's links with local universities.
According to a report in Bloomberg, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) will now have to issue prior security clearance for visas of Chinese businessmen, academics, industry experts and advocacy groups. The measures are similar to those that have long been employed with Pakistan.
The review was launched after security agencies voiced their concerns to the government around the growing Chinese influence in higher education and culture.
The report states that the activities of Indian universities with tie-ups to Chinese institutions are likely to be drastically scaled down. The government is reviewing a total of 54 memoranda of understanding signed between educational institutions of the two countries.
The Indian government recently announced a review of educational institutions with links to Hanban, the official Chinese language training office, which runs Confucius Institutes in various countries. Reports said that Indian chapters of Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms in seven colleges and universities are under the scanner.
The move assumes significance as it comes nearly two months after Chinese and Indian troops clashed at the Galwan Valley in Ladakh, leading to the death of 20 Indian soldiers.
Meanwhile, India and China have agreed to resolve outstanding issues in an "expeditious manner" and in accordance with the existing agreements and protocols, the MEA said after the two sides held a fresh round of diplomatic talks on the border standoff in eastern Ladakh.
MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said the two sides had a "candid and in-depth" exchange of views on the existing situation on the Line of Actual Control(LAC).
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