BEIJING: China condemned India for formally announcing names for 27 sites in a disputed border region, escalating a spat just as the two sides seek to stabilise ties after years of border tensions.
India "attempting to replace the names long used by China is illegal and invalid, and cannot change the fact that Zangnan belongs to China,” the Foreign Ministry in Beijing said in a statement on Monday (Aug 10).
Zangnan is China’s name for what India calls Arunachal Pradesh, and the region has been the source of tensions between the two Asian superpowers for decades. On Friday, India assigned names to passes, settlements, a lake and a war memorial in the northeastern state, reinforcing its sovereignty claim while pushing back against China’s own official place names.
"Identifying them formally on the Survey of India map of Arunachal Pradesh is aimed at facilitating their accurate recognition and better awareness among the public at large,” the Ministry of Home Affairs said in the statement listing the names.
The names include the Dzo La, Riza La, Pukur La and Thag La mountain passes, Sambho Sarovar lake and the Sher-e-Thapa Memorial.
On Sunday, China’s state-run Global Times quoted scholars who called the move unilateral and warned it "could complicate efforts to properly handle border issues.”
Beijing has also released standardised names for sites in the region. India has called those moves "mischievous” and an attempt to advance "false claims.” Arunachal Pradesh "will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India,” Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for India’s External Affairs Ministry, said in April.
China and India share a 3,488-kilometre-long unmarked border that has been the source of tensions in recent years. Ties between the nuclear-armed neighbors are gradually recovering after the June 2020 border clash that killed soldiers. Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Tianjin last August, signalling a thaw in ties.
Indian and Chinese officials also met in New Delhi on Thursday and agreed to maintain diplomatic and military communication aimed at preserving peace and stability along their frontier.
The naming spat comes as videos by Indian content creators alleging increased Chinese activity in Arunachal Pradesh have gone viral on social media in the South Asian nation. Bloomberg News could not independently verify the claims in the videos, which have nevertheless added to opposition scrutiny of Modi’s government over border security during the current session of parliament. -Bloomberg
