NEW DELHI: To assert its claim to what it calls Zangnan, or the southern portion of Tibet, China has renamed 11 places in the Arunachal Pradesh state. Two land areas, two residential communities, five mountain summits, and two rivers are among the locations that have had their names changed. Beijing has produced three lists of this nature; the first list, which included six locations, appeared in 2017 and the second list, which included fifteen locations, appeared in 2021.
China's Ministry of Civil Affairs stated, "According to the relevant regulations of the State Council (China's cabinet) on the management of geographical names, our ministry, together with relevant departments, has standardised some geographical names in southern Tibet," when announcing the list of locations it has "standardised."
The initiative to standardise these geographic designations, according to some experts, "fits within China's sovereignty," as per The Global Times, a state-run media source in China.
Although India did not respond right away, it has previously stated that Arunachal Pradesh has always been and would always be a crucial part of the nation.
Arindam Bagchi, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Affairs Ministry, discussed the renamings in 2021 "The state of Arunachal Pradesh has always been and always will be a crucial component of India. This truth is unaffected by giving sites in Arunachal Pradesh made-up names."
During the Dalai Lama's well-publicized visit to Arunachal Pradesh, the first list of locations to be renamed in 2017 was made public. Once China seized control of Tibet in 1959, the Dalai Lama fled to India. China, meanwhile, asserts that the Dalai Lama is a splittist who seeks to establish Tibet as a sovereign nation.
But given that the Chinese defence and foreign ministers would be visiting India in May for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization defence and foreign ministers meeting, it is unclear why China has chosen this particular moment to rename these locations in Arunachal Pradesh.
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