Chinese soldier trapped in India for 54 years returns home - Polidicks

[quote]Fifty-four years after he accidentally wandered across the eastern frontier into India following the 1962 war with China, a Chinese soldier has returned home to Xi’an to a hero’s welcome. “I’m finally home!” Wang Qi (77) sobbed as he arrived at Xi’an’s airport in an emotional reunion carried on state television in China. “Today is my happiest day in 54 years. Finally I have come back to this beautiful lovely country. Words cannot express how I feel now,” he said as he hugged his tearful brothers and sisters. He was accompanied by his son, Vishnu Wang (35), daughter-in-law Neha and grand-daughter, Khanak Wang. His Indian wife Shushila, however, stayed behind in India as she was ill. Mr Wang had been a surveyor with the Chinese military following the brief war with India in 1962 and had been building roads for the Chinese army when he strayed into Indian territory at Assam. “I had gone out of my camp for a stroll but lost my way. I was tired and hungry. I saw an Indian Red Cross vehicle and asked them to help me. They handed me over to the Indian army,” he said. Mr Wang was moved around between various jails for seven years after he was jailed for espionage, before his release in 1969. He ended up in a remote village in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, where he married and worked in a flour mill, living in poverty and sending many letters to his family in Shaanxi province expressing his desire to come home. Mr Wang began the process of applying for the necessary documents to leave India in 1977, but he only received a passport in 2013. He was never granted Indian citizenship. It was a report by the BBC that highlighted his plight on Chinese social media and expedited efforts to get him a passport. Arriving in his home city of Xianyang, he was met by crowds carrying banners. The reunion took place on the same day as China’s Lantern Festival, a day that traditionally represents reunion. “After all these years, he is finally back,” Wang Shun, who had prepared a quilt for Mr Wang, told the Xinhua news agency. “We bought the furniture in this room many years ago.”[/quote] [url]http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/asia-pacific/chinese-soldier-trapped-in-india-goes-home-after-54-years-1.2972697[/url]

First time hearing that there was a sino-india war.

[QUOTE=Araknid;51815408]First time hearing that there was a sino-india war.[/QUOTE] Ended in status quo antebellum IIRC and was a very short conflict.

[QUOTE=Araknid;51815408]First time hearing that there was a sino-india war.[/QUOTE] I noticed that too, so I looked it up and found that it was concurrent to the Cuban Missile Crisis. That at least explains why an American wouldn't know about it.

[QUOTE=Araknid;51815408]First time hearing that there was a sino-india war.[/QUOTE] Really short war, like a month or so. Happened during very strenuous times for the West (around the cuban missile crisis iirc) so it goes unknown for the most part since it isn't really all that relevant or important given what was happening with the West and it's allies at the time at the time. Only reason I know about it was some guy shitposting on /k/ about his dads (probably fake, granted) stories.

[quote]"I was tired and hungry. I saw an Indian Red Cross vehicle and asked them to help me. They handed me over to the Indian army."[/quote] So much for trusting the Red Cross. Meant to be a symbol of aid, instead just ended up getting him jailed for most of his life.

[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;51815556]So much for trusting the Red Cross. Meant to be a symbol of aid, instead just ended up getting him jailed for most of his life.[/QUOTE] Probably did not have a choice. The Red Cross cannot hold POWs, had no choice to hand him over to the military.

[quote]Mr Wang began the process of applying for the necessary documents to leave India in 1977, but he only received a passport in 2013.[/quote] Jesus balls, can you imagine starting a process and waiting 36 years (lacking further detail) for the bureaucracy to come through? That's 10 years longer than I've existed.

[QUOTE]He ended up in a remote village in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh,[/QUOTE] He should have stayed in the Arunachal Pradesh and attempted to recapture it.

How the fuck did that take so long? That's utterly bizarre.

[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;51815556]So much for trusting the Red Cross. Meant to be a symbol of aid, instead just ended up getting him jailed for most of his life.[/QUOTE] I think you misread the article. He was jailed for 7 years, not 54.

[QUOTE=MuTAnT;51816217]How the fuck did that take so long? That's utterly bizarre.[/QUOTE] Bureaucracy - they managed to get him a passport in 2013 and then he was stuck for some more time because he needed an exit visa, which appeared to have fallen into some sort of bureaucratic black hole. Both countries are making this look like it's some sort of India-Chinese co-operation but really, neither one of them looks good right now when the full facts of this case emerge. They both dun fucked it up and are prime examples about how both systems need to change.

Hang about... I couldn't help but notice this. He was in prison for 54 years... And he has a 35-year old son? :what: :snip: just read the article for a second time :v:

[QUOTE=Steam-Pixie;51817416]Hang about... I couldn't help but notice this. He was in prison for 54 years... And he has a 35-year old son? :what:[/QUOTE] In prison for 7 years, stuck in India for 54