India again rebuffs China’s renaming of places for Arunachal Pradesh. But, why does Beijing keep doing it?

China has renamed places in Arunachal Pradesh for the third time since 2017, a move that has been strongly condemned by the Indian government. China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs released a list of “standardised” names of 11 places in Arunachal in Chinese, Tibetan and pinyin characters on Sunday (2 April) to assert its claim over the territory. As per PTI, these places include two land areas, two residential areas, five mountain peaks and two rivers. Today, India’s ministry of external affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi reiterated the country’s position and rejected Beijing’s action. “We have seen such reports. This is not the first time China has made such an attempt. We reject this outright. 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,” the MEA said in a statement.

Why does China keep renaming places in Arunachal Pradesh and why does it claim the state as its territory? Let’s understand this in detail. When China renamed places in Arunachal in past China has been doing this since 2017 when it had put out the “first batch” of “standardised” names for six places in Arunachal. “According to relevant regulations on the management of place names, the department has standardised some place names in China’s South Tibet region. We have released the first batch of the place names in South Tibet (six in total),” the Chinese government had said at the time.

This list had come days after the Dalai Lama visited Arunachal Pradesh, to which Beijing had raised strong objections.

As per Indian Express, Lu Kang, the then spokesperson of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, had said in 2017: “China has a coherent and clear standpoint of the border between China and India. It is proper action to announce those Chinese place names to the public, as it is according to regulations established by the State Council.” Then in December 2021, China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs said it has “standardised” the names of 15 places in the state. [caption id=“attachment_12406012” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] China has announced new names for places in Arunachal Pradesh thrice since 2017. Reuters (Representational Image)[/caption] Why is China renaming Arunachal Pradesh? China claims the entire state of Arunachal Pradesh as its territory which it calls “Zangnan, the southern part of Tibet”.

The country’s maps depict Arunachal Pradesh as part of China.

As part of its strategy to make territorial claims to Arunachal, China has been assigning new names to the Indian state. Justifying the recent decision, a Chinese scholar told the country’s The Global Times that ‘Zangnam’ had been “China’s territories since ancient times”. Zhang Yongpan, a research fellow of the Institute of Chinese Borderland Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the government’s move to rename ‘Zangnam’ “falls within China’s sovereignty and it is also in accordance with the regulation on the administration of geographical names”. Why does China claim Arunachal? The Line of Actual Control (LAC) divides India’s territory from China’s but there has been a dispute over it for decades. While India considers LAC to be 3,488 km long, China puts it around 2,000 km. In the Eastern Sector of the LAC – Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim – the McMahon Line acts as the de facto boundary between India and China, as per the Indian Express report. This McMahon Line that marked out borders between Tibet and British India was agreed upon in 1914 at the ‘Convention Between Great Britain, China, and Tibet’ or Simla Convention. China was represented by the government of the Republic of China, which ruled the mainland from 1912 to 1949. The current communist government came to power in 1949, declaring the People’s Republic. It was then that the Chinese government removed the country from what it deemed “unequal” international treaties that the country had adopted during its “century of humiliation”, as per Indian Express. It also called for a rediscussion of all its borders. China also expresses strong reservations every time any Indian leader visits Arunachal Pradesh. Significance of Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh, the largest state in the northeast, shares a border with Tibet to the north, Bhutan to the west and Myanmar to the east. China sees Arunachal Pradesh as part of the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR). [caption id=“attachment_12406062” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] India and China have had border dispute for long along LAC. Reuters (Representational Image)[/caption] As per The Times of India (TOI) report, this interest in Arunachal Pradesh is because of the district of Tawang, which lies in north-western region of the state and shares international borders with Bhutan and Tibet. Tawang also houses Tawang Ganden Namgyal Lhatse or Tawang Monastery – the second largest monastery of Tibetan Buddhism in the world. China cites historical ties between the Tawang monastery and Tibet’s Lhasa monastery to bolster its claims over Arunachal Pradesh. When the Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959, he entered India through Tawang and sought refuge at the Tawang monastery for some time amid China’s crackdown, noted TOI.  Last December, Indian and Chinese troops had come face-to-face at Yangtse in the Tawang sector. Meanwhile, Arunachal also has a strategic significance for India from a military viewpoint. Thus, control over the state would be advantageous to China. Arunachal Pradesh’s resources are also what interests China, say experts. Access to the state “will give (China) direct access to northeastern sector of India and control over forest resources”, Dr Jagannath Panda told CNBTV18.com last December. “Water resources are also a strategic draw of the region, with hydropower projects along the Brahmaputra-Yarlung Tsanpo river a regular source of tensions,” Panda wrote in his article earlier. “Arunachal offers strategic advantages via geographical contiguity with Bhutan and access to Southeast Asian markets”, CNBTV18.com quoted him as saying. With inputs from agencies Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook ,  Twitter  and  Instagram