(TibetanReview.net, Feb11’25) –China has raised objections to two Bangladeshi school textbooks and the map on the Department of Survey’s website, claiming that Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin are wrongly depicted as part of India and arguing that these territories have historically belonged to China, reported the firstpost.com Feb 10.
Arunachal became part of India after the 1914 Shimla convention among Tibet, British India and Kuomintang-ruled China while communist-ruled China occupied India’s Ladakhi territory of Aksai Chin in the aftermath of its armed invasion and occupation of Tibet in the middle of the last century.
The report said Beijing claimed that both the textbooks on Global Studies for Class 4 and for Classes 9 and 10 as well as the survey department’s website show Hong Kong and Taiwan as separate countries, rather than recognizing them as part of China. It wanted Arunachal to be marked as “Zangnan”, the Sinicized name for “southern Tibet” it began using only recently.
The report cited Prothom Alo, a Bengali-language daily newspaper in Bangladesh, citing diplomatic sources, as saying China had written to Bangladesh in the last week of Nov 2024, requesting corrections to the maps and information in the textbooks and on the survey department’s website.
China has decided not to apply pressure on the matter for the time being, following Bangladesh’s assurances to address the matter, as the textbooks have already been published. Nevertheless, it has asked Dhaka to take its concerns about the alleged inaccuracies seriously, ensure their correction, and implement measures to prevent future errors.
The Prothom Alo report was cited as saying the so-called “factual discrepancies” cited by China had been printed in this manner for a long time and analysts believed China had raised the issue now due to the shifting political landscape following the student-led uprising on Aug 5 and the increased tensions between Bangladesh and India.
The report has cited several former senior diplomats of Bangladesh as saying Dhaka had never previously encountered such objections from China regarding maps. But now the two nations are stated to be taking steps to finalize new maps.
Bangladesh typically follows internationally recognized methods and institutions when using global maps, the report noted.