What’s in a name?

NEW DELHI: In yet another attempt by Beijing to brandish its sense of entitlement over regions within India’s borders, China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs issued Chinese names for 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh. Beijing had seemingly given precise coordinates, including two land regions, two residential zones, five mountain peaks as well as two rivers. It also listed the category of places’ names along with subordinated administrative districts. The exercise is the third such attempt since 2017, when China had unveiled its renaming initiative for six places as a sign of annoyance in the aftermath of the Dalai Lama’s visit to Tawang. This was followed up by a rechristening in 2021, when 15 places got new names, which sprang up after the inception of China’s new Land and State Border Law. The legislation gave a free rein to Beijing to reclaim territories claimed by China.

The latest episode is a fallout of India deciding last month to host a G20 meeting in Itanagar, which China had boycotted, claiming that Arunachal Pradesh is a part of southern Tibet, a region the Chinese refer to as Zangnan. The renaming is also happening ahead of the Cope India IAF-US Air Force air combat exercise at Bengaluru next week.

India rejected China’s tactics to validate its sovereignty over Arunachal, as the government reiterated that the northeastern state will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India. Attempts to assign invented names will not alter the reality, it added. The White House also confirmed that it has recognised Arunachal to be a part of India for a very long time.

Interestingly, a day after China released these new names, news reports suggested that the standardised geographical names for the 11 places were apparently random names pinned upon isolated forest patches, rivers that did not even exist and town regions that were skeletally held together in Tibet’s Nyingchi prefecture.

This tension over territory has been a long-standing concern for the two countries. In fact, the 1914 Simla Convention defined the boundary between Tibet and China, and the border between Tibet and British India (known as the McMahon Line). Following India’s independence, China annexed Tibet, and the two nations failed to reach a consensus on a common boundary. The 1962 Indo-China war also saw Chinese troops briefly taking over parts of Arunachal Pradesh.

For over six decades, both New Delhi and Beijing have staked opposing claims over portions of the territory along the 3,500-km border, referred to as the Line of Actual Control (LAC). The line demarcates Chinese and Indian-held territories from Ladakh in the west, to Arunachal Pradesh in the east. Many skirmishes of a smaller scale have taken place along the LAC, which has punched holes in the diplomatic ties shared by the two nuclear-armed countries.

Last December, China’s PLA had made a covert attempt to overrun a military post at Yangtse, which falls under the Tawang sector of the LAC. This incursion was foiled by the Indian Army. Before that, Chinese troops had gathered in large numbers at the LAC in 2020. The harrowing altercation at the Galwan valley which resulted in several fatalities on the Indian side, had contributed to relations worsening between the two nations. A fruitful political dialogue has eluded the two neighbours for close to three years now.

This latest affront to India’s sovereignty, deserves a fitting reply from the government. New Delhi must extend Beijing an open invitation to resolve such border-related issues through diplomatic means. In the absence of it, the two nations will be stuck in a loop of persistent hostilities that could escalate without a moment’s notice.