India on Tuesday, May 14, strongly rebuked China’s repeated attempts to rename places in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, calling them “vain and preposterous.” The Ministry of External Affairs issued a firm statement reaffirming Arunachal Pradesh as an integral and inalienable part of India.
Responding to media queries, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, “We have noticed that China has persisted with its vain and preposterous attempts to name places in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. Consistent with our principled position, we reject such attempts categorically. Creative naming will not alter the undeniable reality that Arunachal Pradesh was, is, and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India.”
This comes amid China’s ongoing practice of issuing maps that assign Chinese names to various locations within Arunachal Pradesh, a state that Beijing refers to as ‘Zangnan’. In 2024, China had released a list of 30 such renamed locations, which India dismissed outright at the time.
China continues to object to visits by Indian leaders to the state and uses these naming exercises as part of its territorial claims. However, India has reiterated that such symbolic moves have no bearing on ground realities.
The statement was released in New Delhi on May 14, 2025.
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