The face-off began a few weeks ago, after New Delhi discovered the maps in the e-passports of Chinese nationals visiting India. Instead of rejecting the passports altogether, a “fairly considered” decision was taken to issue visa stickers with a stamp of the Indian map on it.

The Indian embassy in Beijing raised the issue through a demarche with the Chinese foreign ministry and also told them about its decision to stamp the visas with an Indian map. Since issuing new visa stickers and aligning the same with the safety parameters would have been a longer process, a decision was taken to just stamp them with the Indian maps.

The Chinese passports showing Arunachal and Aksai Chin as parts of its territory are being issued so far only in the case of normal citizens. There has been no such case as far as diplomatic or official passports go.

Incidentally, the new outline map on Chinese e-passports also includes Taiwan and South China Sea in its territory, leaving Beijing’s other neighbours such as the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei and Malaysia too infuriated. Taiwan, the Philippines and Vietnam have all protested against the new map.