India’s official map of Arunachal Pradesh. ((Map courtesy: State Remote Sensing Application Centre, Government of Arunachal Pradesh)
New Delhi: In a move seen as an attempt to escalate the border tensions between China and India, Beijing recently released a fourth list of “standardized” geographical names for 30 fresh locations in Arunachal Pradesh. Beijing’s latest action is seen as a demonstration of its determination to assert territorial claims over the Indian state which it claims as its own territory as a part of – what it calls – “South Tibet”.
This latest action has drawn sharp rebukes from both India and the United States.
Reacting sharply to the development, India’s foreign ministry spokesman, Randhir Jaiswal, in a statement, said “India firmly rejects China’s persistent attempts at renaming places in Arunachal Pradesh.” He further emphasized that “assigning invented names will not alter the reality that Arunachal Pradesh is, has been, and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India.”
On Monday, the foreign minister, S Jaishankar, during his Gujarat visit said Arunachal Pradesh was and will forever remain an Indian state. He said China will not gain anything by renaming places in Arunachal.
Addressing a news conference, Jaishankar said, “If I change the name of your house, will it become mine? Arunachal Pradesh was an Indian state, is an Indian state and will remain so in the future. Nothing will be gained by changing names.”
The development has also drawn the attention of the United States, a key strategic partner of India in the Indo-Pacific region.
A US state department official stated, “The United States strongly opposes any unilateral attempts to advance territorial claims by incursions or encroachments, military or civilian, across the line of actual control,” adding, “The United States recognizes Arunachal Pradesh as Indian territory.”
This is not the first time that China has renamed places in Arunachal Pradesh. The first list of standardized names of six places in the state was released in 2017, the second list of 15 places was issued in 2021, and the third list with names for 11 places was released in August 2023, as well as showing Indian sites as Chinese territory, as India Sentinels had reported.
The latest tensions began after China’s civil affairs ministry (equivalent to India’s home ministry) announced that it had “standardized” some geographical names in “South Tibet”. This included mountain peaks, residential areas, rivers, and a town close to the state’s capital, Itanagar.
