Tale of two Chinese spies Wang Chi and Div Shu Nag Jung exiled in India

Balaghat (MP): Two Chinese “soldiers” — Wang Chi and Div Shu Nag Jung — deemed as “spies” by India, shared the fate of living in a foreign land for over half a century in anonymity but in the end fates diverged their paths.

Their turbulent years of their “exile” in India which saw them getting incarcerated in different jails for a long time after being captured in the border in the aftermath of 1962 Indo-China war, and then being “detained” in a remote tribal hamlet, Triodi, in Madhya Pradesh which, in the end, culminated into a pleasant homecoming for one and death for the other.

For Wang Chi, 79, a native of Xianyang under Shaanxi province in China, it was a thrilling end to his 54-year-long battle to return to his motherland after he landed in Beijing in China on February 10 last year to a tumultuous reception by his surviving family members and friends from his younger days.

“His family members were crying their heart out as they hugged him,” said Vishnu Wang, who had accompanied his father along with his wife and daughter to Xianyang then.

Chi, was a mechanical survey engineer in People’s Liberation Army of China and was captured in Arunachal Pradesh on January 3, 1963 and then shifted from one prison to another in Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh before being released in Tirodi in 1969.

Later, Chi started a family in Tirodi by marrying a local girl, Sushila Mohite, in 1974 and assumed a new identity as Raj Bahadur Wang. While doing odd jobs to support his family, Chi ran from pillar to post for 54 years, pleading the authorities to facilitate his return to his homeland. He finally managed to contact his family in China in 1985 and later managed to acquire passport in 2013 and another four years to obtain visa. 

But, it was not the same happy ending for Div Shu Nag Jung. Similar to Chi, Div was kept in several prisons till he was “set free” in Tirodi. Div too, married a local girl, Sewan Bai Janbandhu, in 1973. 

“My husband said his family might have perished in a severe earthquake that hit China in early 1970s. Hence, he had accepted Tirodi as his homeland. But, he had developed a desire to go back when he saw Chi return home in China. But, his dream never materialised” his wife said.

He died on August 31 last year.