China issues travel alert for citizens in India, raises safety concerns

New Delhi: China has issued a notice to its nationals in India asking them to pay close attention to their "personal safety and local security situation", amid a border standoff between the two countries.

The notice was issued by the Chinese embassy in New Delhi on July 7, the day their President Xi Jingping talked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg.

Chinese companies with offices in Delhi and other cities employ citizens from that country, and more then 2 lakh Chinese tourists arrive in India every year.

According to the Indian embassy in Beijing, the number of Chinese tourists arriving in India has gone from 21,152 in 2003 to more than 2 lakh in 2013 and is growing. The number of newly affluent world travellers has seen a spike since the opening the India Tourism Office in Beijing in early 2008.

The standoff between troops of India and China at Doklam area started after Bhutan, which has close diplomatic and military ties with India, protested to Beijing about the People's Liberation Army troops building a road in the strategic location close to the 'Chicken's Neck' tri-junction.

Indian troops intervened on June 16 on behalf of Bhutan to stop the road construction by the Chinese.Doka La is the Indian name for the region which Bhutan recognises as Dokalam, while China claims it as part of its Donglang region.