A day after India’s consulate in Shanghai issued an advisory asking Indian businesspersons to “stay away from Yiwu” in China, as they could “face detention and mistreatment in case of trade disputes”, China’s ambassador in New Delhi Zhang Yan called on external affairs minister S.M. Krishna here Wednesday, assuring him the safety of Indian nationals and businessmen in his country was being given due attention.
China’s attempts to defuse the row comes after the alleged ill-treatment and mid-December abduction of two Indian traders in Yiwu city, a commercial hub in Zhejiang province, by local traders. The local authorities have now initiated criminal proceedings against five Chinese traders.
The two traders virtually held hostage — Shyamsunder Aggarwal and Deepak Raheja — were moved from Yiwu to Shanghai on Wednesday. They are employees of a company whose Yemeni owner fled China without paying dues of several million yuan to local traders. They were left facing the local traders’ wrath.
Earlier, Indian diplomat S. Balachandran, a diabetic, fainted after being allegedly not allowed to leave a court in Yiwu where proceedings against the duo were on to have food and medicines. This was, however, denied by a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson on Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters after meeting the Chinese ambassador, Mr Krishna said he was “immensely pleased and satisfied” with the ambassador’s “quick response”, and also “pleased and satisfied with the local authorities in China, who have been cooperative”.