New Delhi: India on Thursday responded to a Global Times report in which China had announced Chinese names for some places in Arunachal Pradesh.
Arindam Bagchi, official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said giving “invented names” to places in Arunachal Pradesh does not change the fact that it is an integral part of India.
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“We have seen such reports. 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 to specify such names in April 2017 as well,” an official statement from the Ministry of External Affairs quoted Arindam Bagchi as saying.
“Arunachal Pradesh has always been and will be an integral part of India. Assigning names invented in Arunachal Pradesh does not change this fact,” he said.
India’s response comes as China announced names of Chinese characters, Tibetan and Roman alphabets for 15 more places in India’s northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, which it claims as South Tibet.
China announces “standardised” names of 15 places: Global Times
“China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs announces that it has standardized 15 place names in Chinese alphabets, Tibetan and Roman alphabets”: China’s official Global Times referred to Arunachal Pradesh as Zangnan, the region’s is the Chinese name for what it claims. As “the southern part of China’s Xizang”.
This is in accordance with the regulations on geographic names issued by the State Council, China’s cabinet, the report noted.
It further said that among the official names of 15 places, which were given exact longitude and latitude, “eight are residential places, four are mountains, two are rivers and one is a mountain pass”.
The Global Times reported that the second batch consists of eight residential locations S Ngkezong and Daglungzong in Kona County of Shannan Prefecture, Manigang, Duding and Migpen in Medog County of Nyingchi, Goling, Damba and Mejag in Nyingchi’s Zhayu County. Lunze County of Shannan Prefecture.
It states that the four mountains are Lf Ri, Di Yu Ri, Lh Nzub Ri and Kunmingxingz Fang.
The two rivers are the Xenogmo Hey and the Dulen Hey, and the mountain pass in Kona County is named the La.
The report quoted Lian Jiangmin as an expert at the China Tibetology Research Center in Beijing, as the announcement is part of a national survey on place names that have existed for hundreds of years.
Giving them a standardized name is a legitimate move and China’s sovereignty. Lian told the Global Times that more standardized place names would be announced in the region in the future.
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Second such announcement from China
This is the second batch of “standardised” names of places in Arunachal Pradesh given by China.
The first batch of such names for six places was released in 2017.
China claims Arunachal Pradesh as South Tibet which has been strongly rejected by the Ministry of External Affairs which keeps the state “an inseparable part of India”.
Beijing regularly opposes visits of top Indian leaders and officials to Arunachal Pradesh to continue its claim to the region.
The 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control (LAC) is involved in the India-China border dispute.
(with PTI inputs)
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