(TibetanReview.net, May14’25) – To again reassert its point of Tibet being part of it since ancient times, China has, for the fifth time since 2017, brought out a new list of its own names for more places in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, claiming the territory is Zangnan (southern Tibet). India has rejected China’s assertion, saying “creative naming will not alter the undeniable reality”.
“We have noticed that China has persisted with its vain and preposterous attempts to name places in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. Consistent with our principled position, we reject such attempts categorically,” India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement.
“Creative naming will not alter the undeniable reality that Arunachal Pradesh was, is, and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India,” it added.
The statement came after China’s Civil Aviation Ministry released on May 12 new names for 27 locations in Arunachal Pradesh in another attempt to assert claims over Indian territory.
The renaming include 15 mountains, five residential areas, four mountain passes, two rivers and one lake, noted the scmp.com May 14.
“In accordance with the relevant provisions of the State Council on the management of geographical names, we in conjunction with the relevant departments have standardised some of the geographical names in Zangnan of China,” the ministry was quoted as saying.
As with previous lists, the latest batch includes precise coordinates for each place and names in Chinese characters, Tibetan script, and Pinyin. Like the past lists, this batch also omits names in Romanized form, noted Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet (ICT, savetibet.org) May 13.
China releases its lists of new names in Arunachal Pradesh in the name of “standardized” geographical of the listed places.
Chief Minister Pema Khandu of Arunachal Pradesh has condemned China’s latest gimmick.
“Another gimmick from China. Being a proud citizen of Bharat and a native of Arunachal Pradesh, I strongly condemn this act of naming places within Arunachal Pradesh, which have been an inalienable integral part of India. Proud citizens and patriots of Arunachal Pradesh are rejecting such antics,” assamtribune.com May 14 quoted him as saying.
China has been carrying out this renaming game since 2017, with the last one in Apr 2024 listing 30 sites with new Chinese names.
Since the first batch in 2017, China has released a total of 89 names for places in Arunachal Pradesh, which had been part of Tibet prior to the Shimla Convention (of 1014), which was arranged among Tibet, China, and Britain in the tailwind of the “Great Game” between the British and Russian empires, noted the ICT statement.