BEIJING, April 10 (PTI): China on Monday criticised home minister Amit Shah’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh, stating that it violated Chinese sovereignty over the area, days after India slammed Beijing’s move to rename some places in the border state in an attempt to stake its claim over the area.
While there was no immediate reaction from New Delhi over the Chinese foreign ministry’s strong reaction over home minister Shah’s visit, India routinely rejects such objections by China to visits by its leaders to Arunachal Pradesh.
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Responding to a question on Shah’s visit, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said, “Zangnan (the Chinese name for Arunachal Pradesh) is China’s territory”.
“Indian officials’ activities in this area violate China’s sovereignty and (are) not conducive to peace and tranquility in the border regions. We firmly oppose it,” he said at a media briefing here.
Last week, China announced renaming of 11 more places in Arunachal Pradesh in Chinese which they claim as Southern Tibet, evoking a sharp reaction from India.
“We have seen such reports. This is not the first time China has made such an attempt. We reject this outright,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said in New Delhi.
“Arunachal Pradesh is, has been, and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India. Attempts to assign invented names will not alter this reality,” he said.
It was the third batch of standardised geographical names for Arunachal Pradesh issued by China’s civil affairs ministry.
China’s renaming of the places in Arunachal Pradesh came in the midst of the lingering eastern Ladakh border standoff that began in May 2020.
