New Delhi: China objected to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh as it violated Beijing’s territorial sovereignty and was not “conducive” to peace and tranquility along the border.
The Chinese government claims Arunachal Pradesh as South Tibet (Zangnan in Chinese), part of Tibet Autonomous Region, and has “standardised” names of several places, including 11 villages and mountain peaks in Arunachal last week.
“Zangnan (South Tibet in Chinese) is China’s territory… The Indian official’s visit to Zangnan violates China’s territorial sovereignty, and is not conducive to the peace and tranquility of the border situation,” Chinese Foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said, responding to Shah’s ongoing visit.
The Indian government has repeatedly dismissed Chinese claims, maintaining that the northeastern state is an integral part of the country.
Even today, the Home minister strongly rebuffed China without taking its name.
“Times when anyone could encroach on Indian land have passed. No one can question India’s territorial integrity. Nobody can take even an inch of our land,” he said in an address at the strategic Kibithoo village, near the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
Shah is on a two-day trip to the remote state to launch the ‘Vibrant Villages Programme’ (VVP) in Kibithoo, a village in Anjaw district, along the LAC.
“The entire country can sleep peacefully in their homes today because our ITBP jawans & Army is working day and night on our borders. Today, we can proudly say that no one has the power to cast an evil eye on us,” ANI quoted Shah as saying.
“Earlier when people visited here, they used to say ‘I had gone to the last village of the country, but today, I’ll say that I visited the first village of India’,” Shah asserted.
China had protested Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit in February 2018 as well as President Ram Nath Kovind’s visit to Arunachal in November 2017.
