China at it again, renames 11 places in India's Arunachal Pradesh in Mandarin, Tibetan to assert territorial claim

India has previously dismissed the Chinese move of renaming some places in Arunachal Pradesh

China has renamed 11 more places in Arunachal Pradesh in its own language, continuing its bid to buttress its claim on the northeastern state of India.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs of the Chinese Government on Sunday “standardized” in Mandarin Chinese characters as well as in Tibetan and Roman alphabets the names of the 11 places in Zangnan or the southern part of Xizang (Tibet Autonomous Region), the Global Times, a state-affiliated media outlet of the communist country, reported.

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. New Delhi, however, rejects Beijing’s claim and says that the entire state of Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India.

China had earlier renamed six places in Arunachal Pradesh of India in Mandarin and Tibetan in April 2017 and 15 more places in December 2021. New Delhi had strongly reacted to Beijing’s move on both occasions, stating that China’s move to assign “invented names” to places in Arunachal Pradesh would not alter the fact that the state had always been and would always remain an integral part of India.

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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 standardize the geographical names”.

The 11 places, which were renamed by the Chinese Government in Mandarin and Tibetan on Sunday, included “two land areas, two residential areas, five mountain peaks and two rivers”. The Chinese Government’s Ministry of Civil Affairs also listed the category of the names of the places and their subordinate administrative districts with “precise coordinates”, the Global Times reported.

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 (LAC) – 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 the Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand states of India. New Delhi claims that China is illegally occupying about 38,000 sq km of India’s territory in Aksai Chin, which borders eastern Ladakh. Pakistan also ceded to China about 5,180 sq km of India’s territory in 1963.

China in April-May 2020 made an aggressive move to unilaterally change the status quo along the LAC – the de facto boundary between China and India – in eastern Ladakh, by deploying a large number of troops of the Chinese PLA. The Indian Army too had to deploy additional troops to resist the Chinese PLA’s move to push the LAC westward. This resulted in a military stand-off.

Though protracted negotiations led to the mutual withdrawal of front-line troops by both the Indian Army and the Chinese PLA from some areas, the stand-off could not be resolved at several other points on the LAC so far. Beijing has of late been claiming that the mutual withdrawal of troops by the Chinese PLA and the Indian Army from Patrolling Point 15 (Gogra-Hotsprings area) in September 2022 marked the restoration of normalcy along the LAC in eastern Ladakh. China’s claim appears to be an attempt to subtly build up pressure on India to accept the “new normal” in Depsang and Demchok areas where the Chinese PLA continues to block the Indian Army’s access to several patrolling points along the LAC.

The Indian Army soldiers had on December 9 last foiled an attempt by the Chinese PLA to change the status quo along the LAC – the de facto boundary between the two nations – at Yangtse near Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh.