The Chinese government renamed 15 places in Arunachal Pradesh to reaffirm its claim to the state. In a recent announcement, the Ministry of Civil Affairs of China noted that 15 places in Zangnan have been standardised in Mandarin characters, Tibetan alphabet, and Roman alphabet.
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on a sharp note responded, “Arunachal Pradesh has always been, and will always be an integral part of India. Assigning invented names to places in Arunachal Pradesh does not alter this fact.”
Eight residential places, four mountains, two rivers, and a mountain pass in Arunachal Pradesh were among the 15 places renamed by the Chinese government. In October, China introduced a new Land Border Law, which will come into effect on January 1, 2022.
The government of China’s recent attempt to assert its territorial claim comes almost six and a half years after India dismissed a similar move by China to rename six locations in Arunachal Pradesh in April 2017.
