Chinese bags saga: There were 20 large bags with ‘suspicious equipment’, probe on

Did China try to snoop on India’s G20 summit as Chinese President Xi Jinping chose to skip the mega event? Fresh reports circulating in Indian media indicate exactly the same.

A Times of India report has now revealed that the Chinese G20 delegation was carrying as many as 20 large bags with suspicious equipment.

The team of six Chinese officials, who stayed at Delhi’s Taj Palace Hotel, was led by a woman. When they were urged by security officials to get those mysterious bags scanned, the woman ferociously lodged a protest and outrightrefused to produce them for thorough checking.

This resulted in a 12-hour-long standoff at the hotel, with Indian officials remaining positioned on the sixth floor of the hotel.

Eventually, the Chinese delegation agreed to move the bags to the Chinese embassy in New Delhi.

Unusual size of the bags

As per The Times of India, the bags were unusually large as they were around “1x1 metre in length and width and 10 inches thick."

As per an official cited by the Times, the bags were not checked at the airport as per the protocol laid down under the Vienna Convention.

What was inside those bags?

It is still unknown what was hidden inside those bagsas the Chinese delegates swiftly moved them to the Chinese embassy without letting Indian officials conduct any investigation.

As per the sources, the matter has been fully resolved now; however, efforts are still underway to identify what equipment was being carried in those large bags.

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Intelligence officials are now probing whether the bags carried some “off-the-air” type surveillance and jamming devices.

The Chinese side has maintained a silence over the issue.

Who else was staying at the Taj Hotel?

Even a slight possibility of those bags carrying surveillance equipment is concerning because the Brazilian G20 delegation, led by President Lula da Silva, was staying at the same hotel.

Heads of other states such as US President Joe Biden were staying at the nearby ITC Maurya Hotel.

"There was no way we would have allowed them to keep the equipment in the hotel until we were absolutely satisfied about what exactly they were meant for," a source was quoted as saying by The Times of India.

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