India on Wednesday issued a firm rebuttal to China's repeated attempts to rename locations in Arunachal Pradesh, calling the move “preposterous” and asserting that such tactics cannot alter the ground reality that the state is an “integral and inalienable” part of India.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) came down heavily on Beijing after China released yet another list of Chinese names for places within Arunachal Pradesh—marking the fifth such instance since 2017.
“We have noticed that China has persisted with its vain and preposterous attempts to name places in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh,” said MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal in response to a media query. “Consistent with our principled position, we reject such attempts categorically.”
Reiterating India’s unwavering stance, Jaiswal added, “Creative naming will not alter the undeniable reality that Arunachal Pradesh was, is, and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India.”
Beijing, which continues to lay claim over parts of Arunachal Pradesh as the "southern part of Tibet," has a history of releasing renamed lists. The first such list surfaced in 2017, featuring six locations. It was followed by lists of 15 renamed locations in 2021, 11 in 2023, and the latest—released in April 2024—attempts to rename 30 more locations.
Despite China's persistent efforts, India has unequivocally rejected each such move, maintaining that Arunachal Pradesh is an essential component of its sovereign territory and no amount of symbolic renaming will change that fact.
