Arunachal Pradesh ‘Inherent Part’ Of Our Territory: China Defends Renaming Of Places

The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said the “people of different ethnic groups have been living in that area for many years and have given many names for that areas”.

Representative Photo: Getty Images

Beijing: Claiming the southern part of Tibet to be an “inherent part” of its territory, China on Friday defended the renaming of 15 more places in India’s northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh.

“The southern part of Tibet belongs to the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China and it has been China’s inherent territories,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a media briefing in Beijing while responding to India’s assertion, PTI reported.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said the “people of different ethnic groups have been living in that area for many years and have given many names for that areas”.

“For standardised management of the area, the competent authorities in China in accordance with relevant regulations have published the names for the relevant area. These are matters that is within China’s sovereignty,” Zhao said.

Earlier on Thursday, India strongly rejected China renaming 15 places in Arunachal Pradesh.

Reacting to China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs announcing Chinese names for 15 more places in Arunachal Pradesh which Beijing claims as South Tibet, New Delhi asserted that the state has “always been” and will “always be” an integral part of India and that assigning “invented” names does not alter this fact.

“We have seen such. This is not the first time China has attempted such a renaming of places in the state of Arunachal Pradesh. China had also sought to assign such names in April 2017,” Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) official spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said in New Delhi.

Asserting “Arunachal Pradesh has always been, and will always be an integral part of India”, he added: “Assigning invented names to places in Arunachal Pradesh does not alter this fact.”

This is the second batch of standardised Chinese names of places in Arunachal Pradesh released by China. The first batch of the standardised names of six places was released by China earlier in 2017.

China claims Arunachal Pradesh as South Tibet.

This is firmly rejected by New Delhi, which has asserted the state is an “inseparable part of India”.

The India-China border dispute covers the 3,488 km long Line of Actual Control (LAC).