China renames non-existent ‘piece of land’, rivers in India's Arunachal Pradesh

China made another claim to India's Arunachal Pradesh by releasing a list of “standardised geographical names” which included 11 places present in the frontier state that actually turned out to be random names given to nondescript peaks, isolated forest tracts, non-existent rivers and towns superficially bound together as part of Medog, Zayu and Cona counties in Tibet's Nyingchi prefecture.

For instance, China named the two rivers as “Qiburi He” and “Geduo He”, however, it did not provide the co-ordinate of both the rivers, as its civil affairs ministry simply claimed that these were “specific locations”.

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In the list, they called a “piece of land” as “Bangqin” in the forested mountainous area ahead of Zemithang, which is the last village of India in the Tawang district, close to the McMahon Line which demarcates the border of the two nations.

The exercise was dismissed by the official sources as China's “mere mischief” ahead of the Cope India IAF-US Air Force air combat exercise to be held from April 10 to 21 at Kalaikunda airbase in West Bengal.

The list was released by China’s ministry of civil affairs on April 2, using both Tibetan and Chinese pinyin - which is the system of writing native words and names in the Latin alphabet on the basis of pronunciation.

The list, which was the third of its kind, was described by China as an “addition of publicly used place names in southern Tibet” along with administrative districts, select co-ordinates and categories.

China's list included one entry of a settlement named “Jiangkazong”, whose co-ordinates are of a house mapped to Tawang town, which is west of the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya.

The list includes co-ordinates of another settlement named “Dadong” which refer to a large open space marked as part of Tato town in the West Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh as per Google Maps.

China has renamed another “piece of land” as “Guyutong” which actually is a forest clearing near Lohit River's western bank, north of Kibithoo in eastern Arunachal's Anjaw district.

WATCH | China renames places in India's Arunachal Pradesh state

The co-ordinates mentioned for “Luosu Ri”, “Diepu Ri”, “Dongzila Feng”, “Nimagang Feng” and “Jiuniuze Gangri” are acutally mountain tops which are spread across the northeastern state's different locations.

While claims made by China have been dismissed by India, the Chinese foreign ministry has been asserting “sovereign right” on the 11 places listed. It continues to claim that they belong to “Zangnan, the southern part of Tibet”.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, in a statement, said that the United States opposed any “unilateral attempts to advance a territory claim by renaming localities”.

(With inputs from agencies)

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