Why India Needs To Act Against China's Renaming Of Arunachal Spots: Intel Sources Explain | Exclusive

China’s bid to rename locations encircling the state of Arunachal Pradesh is a deliberate attempt to show territorial dominance and poses serious implications for the region, said top intelligence sources, amid the Centre’s plan to rename 30 places in Tibet. China has changed the names of 126 villages since 2017.

India has been rejecting China’s renaming of places in Arunachal, asserting that the state is an integral part of the country and assigning “invented” names does not alter this reality. Earlier in the day, CNN-News18 reported how the newly elected NDA government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the renaming of 30 places in Tibet, in response to China’s nomenclature aggression.

“While renaming by China won’t change the reality, it suggests aggression plans. This is ‘thread of beads’ strategy, whereby it encircles the entire region, much like what has already happened in the Indo-Pacific where people use the term ‘string of pearls’. Continuing with this can cause major tension in the region. If allowed to continue, it poses serious implications for the region…India’s aim in changing names of spots in Tibet signals that Tibet, too, is a part of India. Even the locals there refer to the equation as Indo-Tibet relationship, not Indo-China,” said sources.

“China’s actions can alter history and future generations will have the same identity. This encroachment is in the mind space and in social media, which will majorly attack future generations. This is a deliberate attempt to show territorial dominance. It will have a major impact in the next 20 years if we don’t act and prove the facts,” they added.

Speaking at the South Gujarat Chamber of Commerce, Jaishankar had in April said, “If today I change the name of your house, will it become mine? Arunachal Pradesh was, is and will always be a state of India. Changing names does not have an effect. Our army is deployed there (Line of Actual Control).”

In April, the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs released the fourth list of standardised geographical names in Zangnan, the Chinese name for Arunachal Pradesh which Beijing claims as part of south Tibet. According to state-run Global Times, the Chinese government posted 30 additional names for the region. The Chinese Civil Affairs Ministry released the first list of the standardised names of six places in Zangnan was released in 2017, while the second list of 15 places was issued in 2021, followed by another list with names for 11 places in 2023.

The statements by China to reassert its claims over the state started with Beijing lodging a diplomatic protest with India over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh.

Jaishankar on March 23 dismissed China’s repeated claims on Arunachal Pradesh as “ludicrous” and that the frontier state was a “natural part of India”.

The US administration, too, slammed Beijing’s list of 30 new names for places in India’s Arunachal Pradesh as yet another “unilateral attempt” by China to reassert its territorial claims.