china-has-little-to-achieve-with-its-arunachal-renaming-games

This is not the first time China has resorted to crafty means to stake claim to a territory that never belonged to it. India’s sovereignty over Arunachal Pradesh is internationally recognised, acknowledged and accepted, but China —  next door neighbor, diplomatic headache and a country frantically chasing superpower status – does not think so.  
  
   On March 30, the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs released the fourth list of standardised geographical names in Zangam (the Chinese name for Arunachal Pradesh), reported the Chinese state media. “Set to take effect from May 1, 2024, the implementation measures stipulate in Article 13 that place names in foreign languages that may harm China’s territorial claims and sovereignty rights shall not be directly quoted or translated without authorisation,” said a piece of news in the state-sponsored Global Times, quoting the government notice. 

 

The 2024 list includes 30 new names of various places in Arunachal Pradesh, including 11 residential areas, 12 mountains, four rivers, one lake and one mountain pass. A few days after the release of the list, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, while addressing an election rally at Namsai in Arunachal Pradesh, questioned, “I want to ask China if we change the names of various states of the neighbouring country, will those be parts of our territory?” 

 

But that is precisely what netizens did on social media, while schooling its neighbour and its people. When news came of China renaming a few geographical locations well within the territory of India in December 2021, a few Indians immediately resorted to tit-for-tat approach. Beijing became Bhujang Nagar, Nanjing as Nandigarh, Chengdu as Chandigarh and its beloved Shanghai as Shergarh and so on and so forth. The strong message couched in light banter did not have the prohibitive effect it was supposed to. 

The Chinese stunt of renaming Indian territories first started in April 2017 when it renamed six places. Moving on, it added 15 places in December 2021, another 11 in April 2023. 

 

Time and again, the whole issue of Chinese incursions into India is raised at diplomatic levels and in national politics. Last week, the White House said in a statement that the US strongly opposed China’s renaming attempt. “This is another attempt by the Chinese to claim Indian territory. So the United States, as you know, has recognised that territory for a long time and we strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to advance a territory claim by renaming localities,” said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. 

 

So what purpose did the renaming exactly serve? It’s a symbolic move, one that has underlined for India the Chinese stance on the border issue. It is also a clear sign that there are next to nil chances of any meaningful progress and dialogue between the two Asian giants.  

 

India and China went to war in the 1960s over the region. Moving on, the military standoff continues since June 2020, when a deadly clash at Galwan Valley left 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese dead. Renaming places  is a part of the broader strategy of staking claim to areas China has never given up on. In 2022, Scientists from Northwestern University, USA, along with the Netherlands Defence Academy, released a data set compiling information about Chinese incursions into India from 2006 to 2020. “Building on insights from game theory, we include that Chinese incursions in the western sector of the LAC (Aksai Chin) are strategically planned and aim for a permanent control,” said the researchers in the journal PLOS One. 

Evidence galore and many geopolitical experts have at different times laid bare China’s intentions. Bill Hayton, author of The Invention of China, also had a similar take last year, saying that China's attempt at renaming places in disputed areas is an effort to, “inculcate a sense of anxiety about the perceived loss of territory.”  In 2017, when China first did so, it was a day after the Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama left Arunachal Pradesh after a nine-day visit. 

China’s most recent attempt at renaming 30 Indian places in 2024 comes amidst Beijing’s escalated assertions to re-emphasise its claim over the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. 

It also comes against the backdrop of India inaugurating the Sela Tunnel, an infrastructure project, built at an altitude of 13,000 feet and aimed at facilitating the movement of troops in the mountainous region. China claims the northeast Indian state to be a part of “the southern region of the Tibet Autonomous Region called Zagnan”. 

Every single time the attempts at renaming Indian places have been dismissed by India in strong words and adjectives such as “as a drama, a stunt, a petty attempt and a futile effort” at staking claim to the northeastern state. The External Affairs Ministry did the right thing by dishing out a tepid response and dismissing any insinuations by the neighbour as a “tamasha.”

 

“China has persisted with its senseless attempts to rename places in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. We firmly reject such attempts,” India said in its response on April 2. Rejecting Chinese claims outright, India also emphasised that China’s ‘invented’ names were not going to alter the reality that the state, “has been, is and will always be” an integral part of India.

 

While responding to the development, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar rightfully quipped, “If today, I change the name of your house, will it become mine? Changing names does not have an effect.” China has been told so. But it seems that the country insists on learning its lessons the hard way.