India Firmly Rejects China’s Latest Bid to Rename Places in Arunachal Pradesh
India has strongly pushed back against China’s move to assign new “standardised” Chinese names to locations in Arunachal Pradesh, calling the action a “mischievous attempt” that undermines efforts to stabilise bilateral ties.
The Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs recently released the sixth batch of 23 place names for what Beijing refers to as “Zangnan”, its term for southern Tibet, encompassing the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. China’s Foreign Ministry has since reaffirmed its sovereignty claims over the region.In response, India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) issued a sharp statement, categorically rejecting the renaming exercise.”India categorically rejects any mischievous attempts by the Chinese side to assign fictitious names to places which form part of the territory of India,” said MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal.
He added that such moves introduce “false claims and manufacturing baseless narratives” and “cannot alter the undeniable reality that these places and territories, including Arunachal Pradesh, were, are, and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India.”
The MEA further warned that these actions “detract from ongoing efforts to stabilise and normalise India-China bilateral ties” and urged China to refrain from steps that inject negativity into the relationship.
This is not the first time Beijing has employed cartographic aggression. China has periodically released batches of renamed places in Arunachal Pradesh to bolster its territorial claims, a tactic India has consistently dismissed as having no legal basis and unable to change facts on the ground.
The border dispute between the two nuclear-armed neighbours remains a flashpoint, despite multiple rounds of military and diplomatic talks aimed at disengagement and de-escalation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
Arunachal Pradesh, home to diverse indigenous communities and strategically located in India’s northeast, is fully administered by India and recognised internationally as its sovereign territory. China’s repeated naming exercises are widely viewed as an attempt to assert historical and cultural claims without altering actual control.
