On April 4th, 2023, Tuesday, India outrightly rejected China’s attempt to rename 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh Including five mountain peaks, two land areas, two residential areas, and two rivers. This attempt by China depicts a part of its efforts to re-emphasise its claim over the northeastern Indian State. Arindam Bagchi, the official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs mentioned and asserted that Arunachal Pradesh will always be an integral part of India. 

Yesterday, China released a set of new names for 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh, this is the third time that China has ’renamed’ places in Arunachal Pradesh, which it calls “Zangnan, the southern part of Tibet”.  “We have seen such reports, as this is not the first time China has made such an attempt. We reject this outright” said by Arindam Bagchi during media interactions. China declared its territorial claim over the Indian states  by releasing a third set of names in Tibetan, Chineses, and pinyin characters of Arunachal Pradesh.

The ministry announced the list of the third batch of geographical names in Arunachal Pradesh. According to some news reports, The category of names of places’ and their inferior directorial districts are listed by China’s Minister of Civil Affairs. The first two such lists for renaming places in Arunachal Pradesh were released in 2018 and 2021, as China issued a list of six names in 2017, while in 2021 it renamed 15 places in the state. New Delhi issued a statement that mentioned China was inventing names that would not alter reality. 

The Indian government said that it has been observed that reports of China tried to rename the places in Arunachal Pradesh “in their own language” in December 2022. Also the government declared that the state border has been and will always be an essential part of India. The announcement of names turned out as a permitted move and China’s sovereign right to standardise the new names, quoted by the Global Times, a part of the Communist Party’s mouthpiece.