China has attempted to lay claims over some Indian territory as South Tibet in its latest move. The country has renamed 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh. This move has deepened the misunderstandings between New Delhi and Beijing at a time when the two are in the middle of their worst bilateral relations in decades.

China renames 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh

The changed names include several mountain peaks, rivers and residential areas.

This is the third time since April 2017 that China has renamed places in Arunachal Pradesh.

Despite this move, there was no immediate response from the Indian officials. Some people familiar with this matter said that the Indian side was aware of the development, which was a continuation of similar steps taken by China in recent years.

The renaming in the past too was promptly rejected by India, with New Delhi reiterating that the northeastern state will always remain an integral and “inseparable” part of India.

Official statements

“According to the relevant regulations of the State Council (China’s cabinet) on the management of geographical names, our ministry, together with relevant departments, has standardized some geographical names in southern Tibet,” China’s civil affairs ministry said in a short statement.

Ahead of this, the names of the places in Tibetan will from now also be available in Pinyin — the standard romanisation of Mandarin characters — on Chinese maps.

On Monday, as per a government report, “The official names of the 11 places were released by the ministry on Sunday, which also gave precise coordinates, including two land areas, two residential areas, five mountain peaks and two rivers. It also listed the category of places’ names and their subordinate administrative districts.”

Moreover, the report added that it was the third batch of “standardized geographical names in Zangnan issued by the civil affairs ministry.”

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An expert with the China Tibetology Research Center in Beijing, Lian Xiangmin said that the tabloid that more “standardised” place names in the region will be announced in the future.

Beijing claims Zangnan (the southern part of China’s Tibet) as part of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) of China.

It wasn’t immediately clear why China decided to issue new names now but given the state of ties, it is not surprising that Beijing made a move to irk New Delhi.

The change in names will not have any direct impact on the places in Arunachal Pradesh listed in the 11.