The Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Nigeria has refuted allegations by the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), which blamed its withdrawal from the 2025 World Athletics Relays, which held in Guangzhou, China between May 10 and 11, on the embassy’s delay in issuing visas to Team Nigeria’s delegation to the event.

While regretting Nigeria’s inability to participate in the event in China, the embassy insisted that the statement issued by the AFN was clearly inconsistent with the facts.

In a statement, at the weekend, the embassy said that the delay was caused by the AFN, which took over 10 days to provide necessary documents requested by the embassy to process the visas.

The embassy expressed its commitment to promoting friendly relations between China and Nigeria, saying that it would continue providing support and assistance for exchanges and cooperation in various fields, including sports.

“The Embassy of China in Nigeria would like to state the following facts and position. On April 24, the Embassy received a letter from the National Sports Commission of Nigeria (dated April 22), requesting assistance in processing visas for Nigerian athletes to participate in the event in China.”

“The Embassy immediately communicated with the Commission and guided it to prepare the relevant materials so as to expedite visa application.

“On May 6, China Visa Application Centre received the relevant application materials submitted by the Nigerian athletes. The Embassy immediately activated the expedited procedure, provided the utmost assistance to the Nigerian applicants, and completed the visa issuance on May 8.

“The Embassy of China in Nigeria has always actively supported people-to-people and sports cooperation between the two countries, repeatedly expressed its welcome for Nigerian athletes to participate in events in China, and consistently assisted Nigerian citizens in visa applications in an efficient and professional manner.

“It should be noted as well that visa issuance is a matter of national sovereignty, and all foreign embassies require applicants to provide the corresponding documents and materials, as well as allow sufficient time for the application process.

“We regret that the Nigerian athletes were unable to participate in the event in China this time, but the statement issued by the AFN is clearly inconsistent with the facts,” it said.

The 2025 World Athletics Relays, ended yesterday (Sunday) in Guangzhou, China, with South Africa picking as many as four relay tickets. The event in China served as an avenue for countries to qualify for this year’s World Athletics Championships holding in Tokyo, Japan in September.

Earlier last week, AFN President, Tonobok Okowa, had accused the Chinese authority of deliberately frustrating Nigerian athletes and the officials from making the trip.

He said: “Chinese authorities imposed visa requirements that far exceeded international sporting norms, including demands for documentation that was particularly burdensome for Nigerian nationals. There were deliberate processing delays without reasonable explanation despite our team submitting passport applications at Chinese Embassies in Washington DC, Berlin, and Abuja early enough before the competition.”

Reacting to Okowa’s claims, the Cultural Counsellor at the Chinese Embassy in Nigeria, Yang Jianxing, said that the “Embassy acted swiftly within its procedural constraints once the Nigerian delegation submitted all the required documentation, but the applications were received late, and the time available for processing was extremely limited.’’

“We normally require a minimum of five working days to process and inspect visa applications. Unfortunately, due to the May Day holiday from May 1 to 5, we lost valuable processing time,’’ Yang said.

He also revealed that ‘nine Nigerian delegation members were intended to travel, but after document review, only seven had complete and acceptable applications.

“We released the visas for the seven at 5:10 p.m., and their flight was at around 9 p.m. I think, or earlier. The time was extremely tight, but we did everything we could to fast-track the process. If the documents had arrived before the May Day holiday, the situation would have been different.”