India slams China over renaming 15 places in Arunachal Pradesh

The 15 sites, renamed by the Chinese government, included eight residential sites, four mountains, two rivers, and a mountain pass in Arunachal Pradesh

PGurus Newsdesk

December 30, 2021

The 15 sites, renamed by the Chinese government, included eight residential sites, four mountains, two rivers, and a mountain pass in Arunachal Pradesh

India reacts strongly to China’s renaming move

India on Thursday slammed China after it renamed 15 places of Arunachal Pradesh on its map. Reacting strongly to China’s renaming move, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said Arunachal Pradesh will always be an integral part of India and “assigning invented names in the state to places does not alter this fact.”

In response to a media query, the official spokesperson, Arindam Bagchi said, “We have seen such reports. This is not the first time China has attempted renaming of places in Arunachal Pradesh.”

China is in no mood to give up on its expansionist policy. It has now unilaterally renamed fifteen places in Arunachal Pradesh to reaffirm Beijing’s “territorial sovereignty” to the region.

Describing Arunachal Pradesh as part of the border dispute with India, China said that South Tibet with close Buddhist links to the Tibet Autonomous Region in the Mainland. Official Chinese maps show the state as part of South Tibet.

The Chinese government’s Ministry of Civil Affairs announced on Wednesday that it had “standardized” in Mandarin Chinese characters, as well as in Tibetan and Roman alphabets, the names of the 15 places in Zangnan or the southern part of Xizang (Tibet Autonomous Region). The Global Times, a state-affiliated media outlet in the communist country, reported.

Earlier, India had rejected a similar move by China in April 2017 to rename six places in the north-eastern states of India.

China passed a new law citing protection and exploitation of the country’s land border areas. It stated that the new law will come into effect from January 1, 2022. China shares its 22,457 km land boundary with 14 countries including India, Mongolia, and Russia. As per the law, the People’s Republic of China shall set up boundary markers on all its land borders to clearly mark the border.

The two nations, India and China have been engaged in diplomatic and military talks to resolve the issues and disengagement from the disputed border in eastern Ladakh for the past 20 months.

China is illegally occupying about 38,000 sq km of India’s territory in Aksai Chin, which borders eastern Ladakh. Pakistan ceded to China about 5,180 sq km in 1963 from the Indian territory illegally occupied by it.

PGurus is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel and stay updated with all the latest news and views

For all the latest updates, download PGurus App.