According to the official statement of the Ministry of External Affairs, India has thoroughly rejected Chinas attempt to rename places in Arunachal Pradesh. While speaking at the conference, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi on Tuesday, said that Arunachal will always be an integral part of India.The statement from the Ministry of External Affairs came after Chinas Ministry of Civil Affairs came up with the name of 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh, referred to as Zangnan- Southern part of Tibet following regulations on geographical names issued by the State Council of China.During the press conference, the MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, “We have seen such reports. This is not the first time China has made such an attempt. We reject this outright.” He further added, “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.”According to the reports, this is the third time China has attempted to change the names of some places in Arunachal Pradesh. Before this, China had done it in April 2017, and December 2021. This move is expected to evoke critical reactions from New Delhi, which has always asserted that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India.In the past six-years, China has made a third attempt to give Chinese names to geographic features of Arunachal Pradesh, reiterating its claim.The ministry has provided exact coordinates for two land areas, two residential areas, five mountain peaks, and two rivers, as well as a list of place names and their corresponding subordinate administrative regions. Chinas ministry of civil affairs has published the third set of standard geographic names for the state of Arunachal Pradesh. The standardised names for the first six places in Arunachal were published in 2017, and the names for the subsequent fifteen locations were published in 2021.Reportedly, the first set of the name was announced by China in 2017, a few days after Dalai Lama visits Arunachal Pradesh. The Dalai Lama had fled from Tibet through Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh and sought refuge in India in 1959 after China took military control of the Himalayan region in 1950.India has always dismissed Chinas move towards such activities and has always stressed that such actions would not alter the regions status. As per reports, the first batch of standardised names for six places was issued in 2017 and the second batch of names for 15 places was released in 2021.Deadlock in Ladakh since 2020In eastern Ladakh, where the Peoples Liberation Army attempted to alter the status quo, India and China have been embroiled in a high-tension border dispute since May 2020. The upshot has been the biggest collapse in decades in relations with Asian nations. As a result, both nations deployment of thousands of soldiers and large amounts of heavy weaponry along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) has become a regular occurrence.In June 2021, Galwan Valley witnessed the first fatalities along the LAC since 1975. In which, 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese troops were left dead. Although, both countries have smooth communication on boundary-related issues through diplomatic and military channels, still both countries are yet to reach an agreement on some areas in eastern Ladakh.Chinas name-changing tacticsThe Chinese government has a history of renaming contested territories under new names. China published a list of 80 geographical objects in the South China Sea, including 25 islands, in April 2020. Before that, China had earlier 1983 classified 287 characteristics in the disputed oil-rich region.
