The Chinese government ordered the last remaining Indian foreign correspondent to leave in the latest salvo in an ongoing tit-for-tat between the two Asian powers over the presence of journalists in each other’s country. The Beijing-based reporter for the state-run Press Trust of India was instructed on Monday to leave before the end of the month, marking the first time in decades that Indian and Chinese media outlets will have no local representation.

It wasn’t that long ago that there were more than a dozen Chinese journalists based in India but since 2020 that number has now fallen to just one and even that lone correspondent’s future is now in doubt. For the reporters at the center of this dispute, the situation became untenable as many suffered considerable distress caught in the middle of a bureaucratic fight that limited their mobility.