BEIJING / NEW DELHI — Tensions between India and China over sovereign nomenclature flared up once again on Monday as Beijing vehemently rejected New Delhi's recent decision to formally standardise Indian names for 27 locations and geographical features across Arunachal Pradesh.
Responding to queries on the official Indian mapping initiative, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun stated in a response published on the ministry's official website that Beijing does not recognise the state of Arunachal Pradesh.
"China does not recognise the so-called 'Arunachal Pradesh' illegally set up by India," Guo said. He added that India’s attempt to replace names long used by China with its own standard names was "illegal, null, and void," asserting that the move would not alter China’s territorial claims over the region, which Beijing refers to as Zangnan.
The dispute stems from New Delhi's assertive diplomatic counter-measure last week, when the Indian government formally identified and recorded 27 locations in Arunachal Pradesh using standard Indian names on the official national map. The initiative was launched to systematically counter Beijing’s persistent practice of unilaterally assigning Chinese names to areas within the Indian state.
Since 2017, China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs has periodically released lists of Chinese names for features across Arunachal Pradesh—most recently in April—in a bid to reinforce its claim over the region.
New Delhi has consistently dismissed Beijing’s renaming exercises as baseless attempts at territorial assertion. The Ministry of External Affairs has repeatedly described China's efforts as "vain and preposterous," reaffirming that assigning invented names changes nothing about the ground reality.
Indian officials maintain a firm stance that Arunachal Pradesh has always been, currently is, and will forever remain an integral and inalienable part of India.
