China Includes Arunachal Pradesh, Aksai Chin In New ‘Standard Map’; India Responds

New Delhi: Ahead of G20 Summit in India, China released the 2023 edition of the standard map, showing the entire Arunachal Pradesh, Aksai Chin region, occupied by it in the 1962 war, Taiwan and the disputed South China Sea as its territories.

The map was released by the Ministry of Natural Resources during the celebration of Surveying and Mapping Publicity Day and the National Mapping Awareness Publicity Week in Deqing county, Zhejiang province. “This map is compiled based on the drawing method of the national boundaries of China and various countries in the world,” state-run Global Times said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

India has repeatedly told China that “Arunachal Pradesh was, is and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India”. And an earlier attempt to rename 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh was also rejected in April. “This is not the first time China has made such an attempt. We reject this outright,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi tweeted.

Later, he said that India has lodged a strong protest through diplomatic channels with the Chinese side on the so called 2023 ‘standard map’ of China that lays claim to India’s territory. “We reject these claims as they have no basis. Such steps by the Chinese side only complicate the resolution of the boundary question,” he added.

Reacting to the new map, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut told ANI, “…PM should look into this. He went to the BRICS Summit recently and met the Chinese Premier. Now this map has come out. So, he should be asked this question. It breaks our hearts. What Rahul Gandhi said is true that China has transgressed in Ladakh…China is attempting to enter Arunachal Pradesh. If you have courage launch a surgical strike on China…”

“The absurdity & preposterousness of the Chinese claim is evidenced by the history of the Sino-Indian border dispute…Today, the real issue between India & China is that the Chinese have transgressed along the LAC at multiple points on a theatre level…Under those circumstances, the Govt should seriously introspect whether it would be in accordance with India’s self-respect to befitting a person in Delhi – Xi Jinping – who is in illegal occupation of 2000 square kilometres of Indian territory along the LAC. That is what needs to be vacated…To sum it up, the Chinese maps are preposterous, they are not in sync with the history of the Sino-India border dispute, China has no claim on Arunachal Pradesh…,” Congress MP Manish Tewari was quoted as saying.

Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was spotted having a brief exchange of words with Chinese Premier Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the 15th BRICS leaders’ press conference before taking their designated seats. Foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra had then said that the PM highlighted India’s concerns over the “unresolved issues” along the LAC and both leaders agreed to work towards early disengagement and de-escalation.