India rejects China’s attempt to rename places in disputed areas

India has rejected Chinese attempts to rename places in what New Delhi regards as its eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing claims as part of its territory.

China and India fought a war along parts of their poorly demarcated 3,800km (2,360-mile) frontier in 1962 and clashes in mountainous regions in recent years have seriously strained relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

The latest angry exchange of words was triggered on Sunday when China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs issued a statement in which it said it had “standardised” the names of 11 places, including five mountains, in what China calls its southern Tibet region.

The statement included a map that showed the 11 places renamed by China as being within “Zangnan”, or southern Tibet in Chinese, with Arunachal Pradesh included in southern Tibet and China’s border with India demarcated as just north of the Brahmaputra river.

India’s foreign ministry rejected the move.

“We have seen such reports. This is not the first time China has made such an attempt,” Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Twitter. “Arunachal Pradesh is, has been and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India.”

Our response to media queries regarding the renaming of places in Arunachal Pradesh by China:https://t.co/JcMQoaTzK6 pic.twitter.com/CKBzK36H1K

— Arindam Bagchi (@MEAIndia) April 4, 2023

But a spokesperson at the Chinese foreign ministry said the name changes were “completely within the scope of China’s sovereignty”.

“The southern Tibet region is Chinese territory,” the spokesperson, Mao Ning, told a regular media briefing in Beijing on Tuesday.

At least 24 soldiers, including 20 Indians, were killed when the two sides clashed in the Ladakh region, on the western part of their border, in 2020 but the situation calmed down after diplomatic and military talks.

In the aftermath of the 2020 clash, India banned hundreds of mobile applications of Chinese origin, including the popular social media platform TikTok.

Chinese firms operating in India, including cellphone makers Xiaomi and Huawei, have been raided by the tax authorities.

However, bilateral trade remains robust at approximately $100bn a year, with India importing from China far more than it exports there.

In December last year, troops from the two sides engaged in scuffles in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh.

Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said last month the situation in Ladakh was fragile and dangerous, with military forces deployed very close to each other in some places.