HT Digital,
Itanagar, March 31: The Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs declared on Saturday the renaming of 30 more places along the India-China border, according to the South China Morning Post. The newly standardised names are for areas in Arunachal Pradesh, which China refers to as Zangnan and claims as part of its Tibetan autonomous region.
The ministry stated that the renaming was done in line with the State Council’s provisions for managing geographical names, and in collaboration with other departments. The renamed areas include 11 residential districts, 12 mountains, four rivers, a lake, a mountain pass, and a land parcel, with names in Chinese characters, Tibetan script, and pinyin.
This move follows a recent dismissal by India’s Ministry of External Affairs of China’s claims on Arunachal Pradesh as ‘baseless’. Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal reiterated that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral and inseparable part of India, regardless of China’s claims.
Earlier in the week, China continued to assert Arunachal Pradesh as its territory, despite India’s denouncement of such claims as ‘absurd’ and ‘ludicrous’. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had earlier refuted China’s claims, reaffirming Arunachal Pradesh as a natural part of India during a speech at the Institute of South Asian Studies of the National University of Singapore.
