According to the Indian Express, three athletes from the state of Arunachal Pradesh were given stapled visas instead of stamped ones, forcing the withdrawal.

An eight-member wushu team comprising of five athletes, a coach and two support staff, were denied entry at the gate by New Delhi airport officials on Thursday (July 27) as they were trying to board the flight.

"We were stopped at the gate by immigration officials and CISF personnel," coach Raghvendra Singh said, as quoted by the Indian Express.

"They did not give any reason and claimed they were merely acting on the government’s instructions."

Nyeman Wangsu, Onilu Tega and Mepung Lamgu are the three athletes from Arunachal whose paper works were not accepted, despite applications for the rest of the team being processed on time.

This is not the first time such problems have occurred as China has previously denied Arunachal athletes stamped visas due to territorial dispute.

Five karatekas were issued stapled visas for an event in Quanzhou in 2011.

In 2016, two archers heading to the Youth World Championships faced the same fate.

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi has termed the Chinese decision "unacceptable".

"India reserves the right to suitably respond to such actions," Bagchi said.

"Our long-standing and consistent position is that there should be no discrimination or differential treatment based on domicile or ethnicity in the visa regime for Indian citizens holding valid India passports."

Over 200 Indian athletes are set to participate in the World University Games in Chengdu, including stars like Asian sprint hurdles champion Jyothi Yarraji, Commonwealth Games bronze medallist high jumper Tejaswin Shankar and Asian championship 20 kilometres walk silver medallist Priyanka Goswami.