China releases list of 30 names for places in Arunachal Pradesh

China, over the weekend, released another list of geographical names in Zangnan – India’s Arunachal Pradesh. This comes amid a row between both the countries over China’s claim on India’s frontier state. 

According to the Chinese state mouthpiece, the Ministry of Civil Affairs released the fourth list of standardised geographical names in the region it recognises as Zangnan. Thirty additional publicly used names in the region has been released officially, the site. 

The report stated that the Chinese government had standardised the names of 11 names in the region using Chinese characters, Tibetan and pinyin in April 2023, which was the third list. The first list was released in 2017, while the second was released in 2021. 

It also stated that the implementation measures will come into effect from May 1, 2024, and "place names in foreign languages that may harm China's territorial claims and sovereignty rights shall not be directly quoted or translated without authorization." The government stated that the names in foreign languages or minority languages should comply with the standards formulated by the State Council. 

China that recognises Arunachal Pradesh as Zangnan, earlier in the month reiterated its laim on the region as an  “inherent part of China's territory". It said it does not acknowledge and firmly opposes the “so-called Arunachal Pradesh illegally established by India”. 

The country had lodged protests against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh to inaugurate the all-weather, strategic Sela Tunnel. India rejected China’s claims multiple times and said Arunachal Pradesh is, was and will always remain an integral part of the country.

"Our position on the matter, Arunachal Pradesh, has been made very clear, time and again. Recently, we also issued a statement in this regard. China may repeat its baseless claims as many times as they want, that is not going to change our position,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had said most recently.