China, India in fresh verbal duel after Beijing renames south Tibet areas

China and India have engaged in a fresh verbal duel over their territorial claims in the Indian northeastern province of Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing refers to as the southern part of the Tibetan autonomous region.

The Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs announced over the weekend that it had standardised the names of 11 places in what it called the southern part of Tibet or the Xizang autonomous region, which Beijing refers to as Zangnan.

"We reject this outright," Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Tuesday, adding that the names of some of the places are part of the state of Arunachal Pradesh.

New Delhi has repeatedly rejected Beijing's claims about the province.

Arunachal Pradesh "is, has been, and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India," Bagchi said, adding that "attempts to assign invented names will not alter this reality."

Bagchi's counterpart in Beijing, Mao Ning, rebutted the statement.

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Renaming 11 places 

“Zangnan is part of China’s territory. In accordance with relevant stipulations of the administration of geographical names of the State Council, competent authorities of the Chinese government have standardised the names of some parts of Zangnan. This is within China's sovereign rights," Mao said on Tuesday, according to the Foreign Ministry.

“This is not the first time China has made such an attempt,” said Bagchi.

The first batch of standardised names for six places in Zangnan was released in 2017, and the second batch of 15 places was released in 2021.

According to a report in the Indian daily The Hindu, the Chinese government "standardised" the names of 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh and released them along with a map "that shows parts of Arunachal Pradesh instead as inside the southern Tibetan region, which China refers to as Zangnan."

"The Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs even included a town close to the Arunachal Pradesh capital of Itanagar," the report added.

China has stated that it has "never recognised" the "so-called Arunachal Pradesh" as an Indian province.

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Growing confrontation

Arunachal Pradesh, with a population of nearly 1.8 million, divides China and India in the latter’s northeastern region.

The two countries have been at odds over the region, with China claiming sovereignty over Arunachal Pradesh, which is effectively under Indian control.

The renaming controversy comes after Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said last month that the situation between India and China in the Himalayan region of Ladakh is "fragile and dangerous."

Since May 2020, the two countries have been locked in a standoff along the Line of Actual Control (L AC) – the de facto border between China and India in the Ladakh area of the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region.

In June 2020, at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers were killed in a border clash. 

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