'China's Invented Names Won't Change Reality': India's Response To Beijing's Latest Mischief On Arunachal Pradesh

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has rejected China's latest attempt to lay claim over the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.

Earlier this week, China's Ministry of Civil Affairs had released a list of 11 places in Arunachal using names in Chinese, Tibetan, and pinyin characters. However, India has rejected these efforts, stating that Arunachal is an integral part of India.

“We have seen such reports. This is not the first time China has made such an attempt. We reject this outright. Arunachal Pradesh is, has been, and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India. Attempts to assign invented names will not alter this reality," the spokesperson for the MEA, Arindam Bagchi, has said in a statement.

China claims most of Arunachal Pradesh, including the region of Tawang, which hosts the second-largest monastery of Tibetan Buddhism in the world, with the largest being the Potala Palace in Lhasa. It calls the area “Zangnan, the southern part of Tibet”.

In addition to releasing names, the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs also provided specific coordinates for 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh. These included two land areas, two residential areas, five mountain peaks, and two rivers. Furthermore, the ministry listed the category of each place's name and its subordinate administrative districts.

This is not the first time that the Chinese government has released standardised names for places and geographical features in Arunachal. In fact, this is the third batch of names released by China.

The first batch of names, which included six places in Arunachal Pradesh, was released by the Chinese in 2017. This was followed by a second batch of 15 names that was issued in 2021.

The development comes after China decided to skip a G20 meeting held in Arunachal on 26 March. New Delhi's decision to hold the meeting in Arunachal was dubbed as a "diplomatic curveball" for Beijing.