China unveils new set of names in disputed area with India

China has reaffirmed its claim to standardise the names of places in Arunachal Pradesh, asserting that the region has historically been part of its territory. 

This comes in response to India's rejection of Beijing's recent efforts to assign Chinese names to locations within the northeastern region at the China-India border. 

Such renaming initiatives have often heightened tensions in the already fraught bilateral relationship, especially following the 2020 border conflict. 

In October, both nations reached an agreement to ease the four-year military standoff in the western Himalayas, facilitating troop disengagement. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian addressed the media, emphasising Beijing's stance on the region.

Beijing says Arunachal Pradesh, which it calls Zangnan, is a part of South Tibet — a claim New Delhi has repeatedly dismissed.

"Creative naming will not alter the undeniable reality that Arunachal Pradesh was, is, and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India," India's foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Wednesday.

In April last year, China made a similar move by renaming about 30 locations in Arunachal Pradesh, which India dismissed as "senseless" and reaffirmed the region's status as an "integral part" of the country.

India and China share a poorly demarcated 3,800-kilometre (2,360-mile) frontier and fought a brief but brutal war in 1962. There have also been infrequent clashes between their troops, with 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers killed in the 2020 fighting.

The India-China exchange comes days after India and Pakistan ended four days of intense military fighting, during which they used jets, missiles and drones after New Delhi attacked what it called terrorist camps in Pakistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

The Indian strike came in response to an April 22 attack on tourists in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir which killed 26 men.

Pakistan said it had nothing to do with the attack on the tourists, adding that India's strike was aimed at civilian targets.