India has once again hit back at China’s latest attempt to rename locations in Arunachal Pradesh—dubbed “Zangnan” by Beijing—with a firm rejection and a reminder that the state is, and will remain, an integral part of India.
“China continues its vain and preposterous attempts to name places in Arunachal Pradesh,” said MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal. “Consistent with our principled position, we reject such attempts categorically. Creative naming will not alter the undeniable reality that Arunachal Pradesh was, is, and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India.”
This rebuttal follows China’s release of 30 newly renamed locations in the region, part of a recurring campaign to assert its territorial claim over the Indian state. India has consistently dismissed these moves as meaningless.
In a move that flies in the face of recent diplomatic overtures, China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs released its latest list of “standardized” names for places well within Indian territory. The renamed sites include not just mountains, but also residential areas, mountain passes, rivers, and a lake—part of Beijing’s broader effort to stamp its authority on the region it claims as part of Tibet, which was militarily captured by the Chinese in the 1950s, and has been highly militarized ever since.
The border dispute, rooted in China’s claim that Arunachal is part of historical Tibet, remains a longstanding flashpoint. Adding to the tension is China’s plan to build the world’s largest hydroelectric dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo river, just before it flows into India as the Siang and then the Brahmaputra.
