In another provoking act of China, concerns are sweeping in Indian territory. In a vehement effort to emphasise its claim over India’s Arunachal Pradesh, China has come up with a third set of names for 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh, which it referred to as “Zangnan, the southern part of Tibet.”
“The official names of the 11 places were released by the ministry on April 2, which also gave precise coordinates, including two residential areas, five mountain peaks, two rivers and two other areas. It also listed the category of places’ names and their subordinate administrative districts,” Global Times reported.
Reporting on Beijing’s latest decision to rename the places in Arunachal Pradesh of India on Monday, the Global Times quoted unidentified ‘experts’, calling it “a legitimate move” by China and underlining that it was the communist country’s “sovereign right to standardise the geographical names”.
Beijing claims 90,000 sq km of area in Arunachal Pradesh of India as part of the territory of China and calls it Zangnan or south Tibet. The first batch of six places was announced in April 2017, and the second batch of 15 places in December 2021.
Flash: Chinese authorities announce new names of 11 locations in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. Announcement made by Chinese civil aviation ministry. Notification: pic.twitter.com/p8EwoCj4Of
— Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) April 3, 2023
The Ministry of External Affairs didn’t respond to the announcement from Beijing. However, India has previously dismissed China’s move to rename places in Arunachal Pradesh, asserting that the state has always been and will always be an integral part of India and that assigning invented names does not change this.
China moved to assert its territorial claim on Arunachal Pradesh and thus to challenge that of India even as the three-year-long stand-off between its People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the Indian Army along the western sector of the Line of Actual Control – the de facto boundary between the two nations – in eastern Ladakh could not be completely resolved yet.
Beijing also claims 2,000 sq km of area in India’s Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand States. New Delhi claims that China illegally occupies about 38,000 sq km of India’s territory in Aksai Chin, which borders eastern Ladakh. Pakistan also ceded about 5,180 sq km of India’s territory to China in 1963.
The April 2 announcement comes ahead of a visit to India this month by China’s newly appointed Defence Minister General Li Shangfu, who is expected to attend the SCO Defence Ministers’ meeting, and a visit by Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, who will attend the SCO Foreign Ministers’ meeting in May in Goa.
On the one hand, China wants to normalise the boundary issues with India as soon as possible. But the actions undertaken by the Chinese side are juxtaposed spirit to what it says. China has the habit of nibbling up the territories gradually but relentlessly. They want India to accept this new normal and succumb to their pressure. The Indian side is already on its toes with the ongoing tussle. These incidents exacerbate middle-ground opportunities, which are already slim between the two countries.
