Congress rakes up past ban on a China company to question govt stand on Adani Group

Congress on Sunday raised the issue of the Modi government reportedly denying security clearance in 2022 to a consortium of APM Terminals Management and Taiwan's Wan Hai Lines after agencies discovered a connection between a Wan Hai director and a Chinese firm, and asked why no such restriction was imposed on the Adani Group despite reports of a Chinese company having close links with its infrastructure projects.

The decision in 2022 had blocked the APM Terminals-Wan Hai consortium's bid to operate a container handling terminal at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port, as per a statement from AICC chief spokesman Jairam Ramesh. "It is government policy to prevent Chinese firms and entities with Chinese connections from operating ports and terminals in India. This raises fresh questions about the Adani Group's China links," he said.

"As we have repeatedly pointed out in our Hum Adani ke Hain Kaun (HAHK) series of questions to PM Narendra Modi, the Chinese citizen, Chang Chung-Ling, is closely associated with the Adani Group. His son owns PMC Projects, a firm that has constructed ports, terminals, rail lines, power lines and other infrastructure assets for the Adani Group..."