(TibetanReview.net, Mar31’24) — In yet another provocative move, asserting cartographic sovereignty over the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh on the basis of its occupation rule over Tibet, China has on Mar 30 declared its own names for 30 more places in the territory it calls Zangnan (or southern part of Tibet).
The Ministry of Civil Affairs released the fourth list of standardized geographical names in Zangnan, reported China’s official globaltimes.cn Mar 30, citing the ministry’s official website. It said the announcement was for “30 additional publicly used place names in the Zangnan region”.
The report did not list those names. However, according to the scmp.com Mar 31, the latest renaming covered 11 residential areas, 12 mountains, four rivers, one lake, one mountain pass and a piece of land, all given in Chinese characters, Tibetan and pinyin, the Roman alphabet version of Mandarin Chinese.
It noted that the ministry had last standardized the names of 11 places in Zangnan, using Chinese characters, Tibetan and pinyin, in Apr 2023. That was the third list since 2017 when six placenames were announced, which was followed by the second list with 15 placenames in 2021.
The latest list followed the ministry’s publication on Mar 15 of implementation measures on Mar 15 for the management of geographical names, which detailed the requirements for the translation of place names in ethnic minority or foreign languages into Chinese characters.
The measures, which will take effect from May 1, 2024, stipulate in Article 13 that “place names in foreign languages that may harm China’s territorial claims and sovereignty rights shall not be directly quoted or translated without authorization.”
And it was made clear that translation of placenames in foreign languages or minority languages should comply with standards formulated by related organs of the State Council, China’s cabinet or council of ministers. Standard translations are made public through notices, the national database for geographical names and official publications on geographical names, according to the implementation measures.
This meant that “Tibet” should be referred to as “Xizang”, “Arunachal Pradesh” as Zangnan”, “Mt Everest” as “Qomolangma”, and so forth.
The report also noted that the State Council had issued a revised regulation on placenames in Apr 2022, applicable to naming, renaming, usage, cultural protection and other management on geographical names within Chinese territories.