Guwahati: India has strongly rejected China’s claims of renaming 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh, asserting that the state has been and will “always be” an integral part of India.
China released a set of names in Chinese, Tibetan and pinyin characters for Arunachal Pradesh, as part of its efforts to re-emphasise its claim over the northeastern state.
China has renamed places in Arunachal Pradesh for the third time, which it calls “Zangnan, the southern part of Tibet”.
The list of names released by China includes five mountain peaks, two land areas, two residential areas, and two rivers.
The first two such lists were released in 2018 and 2021. China issued a list of six names in 2017, while in 2021 it ‘renamed’ 15 places in Arunachal Pradesh.
However, in a recent development, New Delhi has issued a statement and said that China was inventing names which would not alter reality.
“We have seen such reports. This is not the first time China has made such an attempt. We reject this outright..” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said.
“Arunachal Pradesh is, has been, and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India. Attempts to assign invented names will not alter this reality,” the minister asserted.
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According to The Global Times, which is part of the ruling Communist Party’s mouthpiece in China, the Chinese authorities are calling this move ‘standardised geographical names’.
The first set of names was announced by China in 2017 days after the Dalai Lama’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh.
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