India’s New Delhi said on Sunday that China’s move to assign “fake names” to Indian territory to fabricate “baseless narratives” cannot change reality but may affect ongoing efforts to normalize bilateral relations.
External Affairs Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said that New Delhi “categorically rejects” any “malicious attempts” by the Chinese side to assign such names to places that are part of Indian territory.
India reacted sharply when China resorted to renaming certain places in Arunachal Pradesh in May last year and also in April 2024.
“India categorically rejects any malicious attempts by the Chinese side to assign fictitious names to places that form part of the territory of India,” Jaiswal said.
“Such attempts by China to make false claims and fabricate baseless narratives cannot change the undeniable fact that these places and territories, including Arunachal Pradesh, have been and will always remain an integral part of India,” he added.
Jaiswal said that these actions by the Chinese side “detract from the ongoing efforts to stabilize and normalize bilateral relations between India and China.”
“China should refrain from actions that inject negativity into relations and undermine efforts to create better understanding,” he said.
Jaiswal was responding to a media query on the issue.
Relations between the two countries have seen a major downturn following the eastern Ladakh border row in 2020. In the past year and a half, the two sides have initiated a series of measures to rebuild relations.
In a new list issued recently, China renamed certain places in Indian territory.
The Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs issued the first list of unified names for six places in Zhangnan in 2017, while the second list of 15 places was issued in 2021, followed by another list of 11 place names in 2023.
Zangan is the Chinese name for Arunachal Pradesh.
China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of southern Tibet.
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