New Delhi, April 03 (Agencies):
China has released a third set of names for Arunachal Pradesh in Chinese, Tibetan, and pinyin characters as part of its efforts to reaffirm its claim to the Indian state. China's Ministry of Civil Affairs issued standardised names for 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh, which it refers to as ‘Zangnan, the southern part of Tibet,' on Sunday, in accordance with State Council, China's cabinet, regulations on geographical names.
The ministry released the official names of the 11 places on Sunday, along with precise coordinates, including two land areas, two residential areas, five mountain peaks, and two rivers, as well as the category of places' names and their subordinate administrative districts, according to the state-run Global Times on Monday. China's civil affairs ministry has issued the third batch of standardised geographical names for Arunachal Pradesh.
The first batch of standardised names for six Arunachal locations was released in 2017, and the second batch of 15 locations was released in 2021. India has previously rejected China's move to rename some locations in Arunachal Pradesh, claiming that the state has ‘always been' and will ‘always be' an integral part of India and that assigning ‘invented' names does not change this fact. “This is not the first time China has attempted such renaming of places in the state of Arunachal Pradesh,” said Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson for the External Affairs Ministry, in December 2021. “Arunachal Pradesh has always been and will always be an integral part of India,” he had stated. “Assigning invented names to places in Arunachal Pradesh does not change this fact.”
According to Chinese experts, the announcement of names is a legitimate move and China's sovereign right to standardise geographical names, according to the Global Times, which is part of the ruling Communist Party's mouthpiece People's Daily group of publications. China announced the first set of names in 2017, just days after the Dalai Lama visited Arunachal Pradesh. China was outraged by the Tibetan supreme leader's visit. After China took military control of the Himalayan region in 1950, the Dalai Lama fled from Tibet through Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh and sought refuge in India in 1959.
