'India should remind PRC...': Indian geostrategist blasts China over naming of 30 places in Arunachal

A day after China released 30 more names for places in Arunachal Pradesh, which it considers its own, Indian geostrategist Brahma Chellaney on Monday said New Delhi should remind Beijing that it occupied Tibet by mocking international law and that it now wants to extend its Tibet annexation to Arunachal. 

Chellaney said China should be told that the real issue is that it imposed itself as India's neighbor by annexing Tibet.

Tibet, located on the northern side of the Himalayas, was an autonomous region till 1950 when China forcefully acquired it. In 1954, India recognised Tibet as a part of China, with the signing of the Panchsheel Agreement between India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and China's Premier Zhou Enlai. 

Tibet shares a long border with the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. China, which has adopted an aggressive foreign policy under President Xi Jinping, claims that Arunachal is part of southern Tibet.  

In a tweet on March 26, Chellaney suggested that India should reverse its recognition of Tibet as part of China. He said China claims that India's Arunachal state is part of Tibet, though the Dalai Lama says this assertion has no historical basis. "Should India continue to recognize Tibet as part of China when Beijing openly seeks to extend its Tibet annexation to Arunachal?"

On Sunday, China released a fourth list of 30 new names of various places in Arunachal. The Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs released the fourth list of standardised geographical names in Zangnan, the Chinese name for Arunachal, state-run Global Times reported on Sunday. The ministry posted 30 additional names for the region. 

The Chinese Civil Affairs Ministry released the first list of the standardised names of six places in Zangnan in 2017, while the second list of 15 places was issued in 2021 followed by another list with names for 11 places in 2023. 

The recent statements by China to reassert its claims over the state started with Beijing lodging a diplomatic protest with India over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Arunachal, where he dedicated to the nation the Sela Tunnel built at an altitude of 13,000 feet in Arunachal Pradesh. 

The tunnel will provide all-weather connectivity to strategically located Tawang. 

India has, on multiple occassion, rejected China's claim on Arunachal, asserting that the state is an integral part of the country and assigning "invented" names does not alter this reality.