Guwahati: China on Tuesday, April 14, said its approach towards strengthening ties with India remains unchanged, while justifying its recent step of issuing new names for places in Arunachal Pradesh.
India strongly dismissed China’s attempt on Sunday to rename locations within its territory, saying such actions are unacceptable and do not reflect the ground reality. It also warned that such moves could negatively impact efforts to improve relations between the two sides.
India’s reaction also comes at a time when China has reportedly set up another administrative unit in Aksai Chin, a region that India considers part of its own territory.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India does not accept any effort by China to rename places within its borders.
In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said that the area referred to as Zangnan is under China’s control, adding that Beijing does not acknowledge Arunachal Pradesh as part of India.
Zangnan is the term used by China for Arunachal Pradesh, which it considers to be part of what it calls southern Tibet.
Guo further said that assigning official names to places in this region falls within China’s authority, and defended the release of several lists naming locations there.
He also said that overall ties between the two countries are stable at present, and reiterated that China’s stance on developing relations with India has not changed.
He added that both countries should move forward in a way that supports better engagement and cooperation.
Authorities in China’s Xinjiang region, on March 26, announced the formation of a new county named Cenling, situated near Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Afghanistan, and close to the western sector of the Line of Actual Control with India.
Cenling, situated near the Karakoram range, is the third such administrative unit created by China in Xinjiang, a region largely populated by Uyghur Muslims.
India had earlier objected to the formation of Hean and Hekang counties, saying that parts of these areas fall within its Union Territory of Ladakh.
Since 2017, China has continued issuing its own set of names for different areas in Arunachal Pradesh, a practice India has consistently rejected, maintaining that such renaming efforts do not alter ground realities.