China Renames 30 More Places in Arunachal Pradesh: Report

China released a list of 30 more renamed places in Arunachal Pradesh and along the border with India, the South China Morning Post reported. The Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs published a name referred to as Zangnan by China, and it claims to be part of the Tibetan autonomous region.

According to the South China Morning Post report, the Chinese ministry said, "In accordance with the relevant provisions of the State Council [China’s cabinet] on the management of geographical names, we, in conjunction with the relevant departments, have standardised some of the geographical names in Zangnan of China." 

The renaming comprised 11 residential districts, 12 mountains, four rivers, one lake, one mountain pass, and a parcel of land, all denoted in Chinese characters, Tibetan script, and pinyin, the Romanised form of Mandarin Chinese.

This comes after a rebuttal by the Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday refuting China's claims on Arunachal Pradesh, labelling them as "baseless". Reiterating India's stance, spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal asserted that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India, a fact that is immutable despite China's persistent assertions.

MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, during the press briefing, said, "Our position has been made very clear time and again. China may repeat its baseless claims as many times as they want. That is not going to change the position of India. Arunachal Pradesh was is and will always remain an integral an inalienable part of India."

Earlier external affairs minister S Jaishankar had also denounced China's repeated claims on Arunachal Pradesh as "ludicrous" and that the frontier state was a "natural part of India".