Beijing: Describing the southern part of Tibet as an “inherent part” of its territory, China on Friday defended the renaming of 15 more places in India’s northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh.
“The southern part of Tibet belongs to the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China and has been China’s inherent territory,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a media briefing in Beijing, responding to India’s claim.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said that “people from different ethnic groups have been living in that area for many years and they have given many names to that area”.
“For the standardized management of the territory, the competent authorities in China have published names for the respective territory in accordance with the relevant regulations. These are matters that are within the sovereignty of China,” Zhao said.
Earlier on Thursday, India strongly denied the renaming of 15 places in Arunachal Pradesh by China.
China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs announced Chinese names for 15 more places in Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing claims as South Tibet, with New Delhi asserting that the state has “always been” and “always” in India. has been an integral part of and “always” will be. Invented” names do not change this fact.
“We have seen this. This is not the first time that China has attempted to change the names of places in the state of Arunachal Pradesh. China had sought such names in April 2017 as well,” official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said. Arindam Bagchi said in New Delhi.
“Arunachal Pradesh has always been, and always will be, an integral part of India”, he asserted, adding: “Assigning invented names to places in Arunachal Pradesh does not change this fact.”
This is the second batch of standardized Chinese names of places in Arunachal Pradesh issued by China. The first batch of standardized names for the six places was issued by China earlier in 2017.
China claims Arunachal Pradesh to be South Tibet.
This has been strongly rejected by New Delhi, which has claimed that the state is “an inseparable part of India”.
The 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control (LAC) is involved in the India-China border dispute.
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