China’s latest claim over Arunachal Pradesh: As part of its efforts to reaffirm its claim over the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, China on Sunday produced a third set of names for the region in Chinese, Tibetan, and pinyin characters.
According to the State Council, China’s cabinet, the Ministry of Civil Affairs of China published the standard names for 11 locations in Arunachal Pradesh, referring to it as “Zangnan, the southern section of Tibet.”
China released a detailed claim
According to state-run Global Times, the ministry officially announced the names of the 12 sites on Sunday. It also provided precise coordinates for two land areas, two residential areas, five mountain peaks, two rivers, and listed the names of the places’ categories and subordinate administrative districts.
This is not the first time
The third set of Arunachal Pradesh’s standard geographic names has been released by China’s ministry of civil affairs. In Arunachal, the first batch of the standardised names for six locations was published in 2017, and the second batch, for fifteen locations, was published in 2021.
India’s reaction
The Chinese initiative to name several locations in Arunachal Pradesh was earlier rejected by India, which argued that the state has “always been” and “would always be” a crucial component of India and that giving places “invented” names does not change this fact. “This is not the first time China has attempted such a renaming of places in the state of Arunachal Pradesh.”
Arindam Bagchi, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson in December 2021 said “Arunachal Pradesh has always been, and will always be an integral part of India. Assigning invented names to places in Arunachal Pradesh does not alter this fact,” he had said.
Chinese experts were mentioned by the People’s Daily outlet The Global Times as noting that the announcement of names is a valid action and that China has the sovereign right to standardise the geographic names.
Days after the Dalai Lama’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh in 2017, China released the first list of names. The visit of the Tibetan spiritual leader received harsh criticism from China.
After China took military control of the Himalayan area in 1950, the Dalai Lama fled from Tibet via Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh and claimed refuge in India.
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