“We have noticed that China has been in vain and absurd attempts to name the places in Arunachal Pradesh, India,” the MEA said.
“Consistent with our principled position, we explicitly reject this attempt. Creative naming will not change the undeniable reality that Arunachal Pradesh was and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India.
China’s efforts to tighten Arunachal Pradesh in India-Central Pakistan may indicate that Beijing is working to keep India’s efforts in the East and West.
Earlier in 2024, the MEA rejected China’s repeated attempts to rename it in Arunachal Pradesh. The MEA asserted in its official statement last year that assigning the “name of invention” will not change the reality of the state, which was and will always be “an integral and inalienable part of India.”
As early as 2017, the Ministry of Civil Affairs of China released the initial list of standardized names for six locations in Zangnan (Chinese terminology of Arunachal Pradesh). The second list was subsequently released in 2021, followed by another list with names of 11 locations in 2023. Last year, China released a fourth-place list with 30 other names in different locations in Arunachal Pradesh, as part of its ongoing efforts to assert its claims to the Indian state. Beijing claims Arunachal Pradesh is part of southern southern Tibet, and the ministry’s official website adds 30 names to the region. For decades, China has also opposed Indian leaders’ visit to Arunachal Pradesh to claim that the region “belongs to them.” Earlier, it even sent staple visas to residents of Arunachal Pradesh, making a keen response from India.
Tawang of Arunachal Pradesh is interested in that the current Dalai Lama fled to India through Tawang, and the sixth Dalai Lama was born in Tawang. China’s argument is that since the sixth Dalai Lama Tsangyang Gyatso was born in Tawang, it is close to the heart and religious sentiment of the Tibetan people.
