‘Vain & preposterous’: India hits out at China’s attempt to rename locations in Arunachal
Creating acrimony in the ongoing discussions on the pending boundary issue with India, China on Wednesday repeated its claim to Arunachal Pradesh even as it "renamed" 27 locations in the state.
India has rejected the claim saying “the reality is that Arunachal Pradesh was, is, and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India”.
Firmly dismissing China's latest attempt to rename 27 locations in Arunachal Pradesh, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Wednesday termed it as a “vain and preposterous” move.
The MEA said, “We have noticed that China has persisted with its vain and preposterous attempts to name places in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. Consistent with our principled position, we reject such attempts categorically. Creative naming will not alter the undeniable reality that Arunachal Pradesh was, is, and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India.”
In response to India's statement objecting to the renaming of places, Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian while addressing a press conference in Beijing, said, “Zangnan is part of China’s territory. The Chinese government has standardised the names of some parts of Zangnan. This is within China’s sovereign rights.”
‘Zangnan’ is the name given by China to Arunachal Pradesh. Beijing has made "one-sided" claims on the state in the past also. India has rejected that claim outrightly.
Though it is not the first time that Beijing has attempted to change names, the latest move is the first since the October 2024 understanding to disengage the two militaries in eastern Ladakh.
In April last year, the two sides had carried out a tit-for-tat renaming of several places. China had kicked off that round by giving Chinese names to towns in Arunachal Pradesh, India had retorted by renaming 30 places in Tibet.
