New Delhi: India has reacted strongly to yet another move by China to rename locations within Indian territory. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has said that such efforts will harm the ongoing efforts to stabilise and normalise bilateral ties.
India “categorically rejects any mischievous attempts by the Chinese side to assign fictitious names to places which form part of the territory of India,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement.
“Such attempts by China at introducing false claims and manufacturing baseless narratives cannot alter the undeniable reality that these places and territories, including Arunachal Pradesh, were, are, and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India,” he said.
Such actions by China “detract from ongoing efforts to stabilise and normalise India-China bilateral ties”, the MEA said.
“China should refrain from actions which inject negativity into relations and undermine efforts to create better understanding,” Jaiswal added, as reported by NDTV.
Relations between the two neighbours deteriorated after the May 2020 Galwan faceoff. After nearly five years, India and China have been making efforts to defuse tension along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). However, analysts and top officials have often pointed at China’s long-term strategy using border infrastructure, dual-use settlements and renaming of places to influence narratives across the LAC.
Such attempts by China have always been countered by India, just as it has rejected Beijing’s claims over Arunachal Pradesh. People from the northeastern state have faced trouble recently whole travelling through China.
Even in May 2025, the MEA has said it noticed that China had 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,” Jaiswal has then said.
