China recently announced standardized names for 15 places in Arunachal Pradesh

India on Thursday reacted angrily to China’s recent actions on renaming of places in Arunachal Pradesh, calling it a “ridiculous exercise.”

“We have seen reports of the Chinese side renaming some places in Arunachal Pradesh last week. We had at that time conveyed our views on such a ridiculous exercise to support untenable territorial claims,” Spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs Arindam Bagchi said during a weekly media briefing.

Taking a hard view on renaming of places in Arunachal Pradesh by China, he said, “Calling Tuting as “DouDeng” or River Siyom as “XiyueMu” or Kibithu as “Daba” doesn’t alter the fact that Arunachal Pradesh has always been and will always remain an inalienable part of India.”

The MEA Spokesperson said, “We hope that instead of engaging in such antics, China will work constructively with us to resolve the outstanding friction points in areas along the western sector of the LAC in India-China border.”

Last month, China announced names in Chinese characters and Tibetan and Roman alphabets for 15 more places in Arunachal Pradesh, which it claims as “South Tibet”.

China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs announced it had “standardised” the names of 15 places in Zangnan, the Chinese name for Arunachal Pradesh.

India had reacted angrily, stating, “Arunachal Pradesh has always been, and will always be an integral part of India. Assigning invented names to places in Arunachal Pradesh does not alter this fact.”

The MEA Spokesperson had said,“ This is not the first time China has attempted such a renaming of places in the state of Arunachal Pradesh. China had also sought to assign such names in April 2017.”

With regard to the letter written by the Political Counsellor at the Chinese embassy in India to the Parliamentarians, Arindam Bagchi said, “The substance, tone and tenor of the letter are inappropriate. The Chinese side should note that India is a vibrant democracy and Hon’ble Members of Parliament, as representatives of the people, undertake activities as per views and beliefs. We expect the Chinese side to refrain from hyping normal activities by Hon’ble Members of Parliament and complicate further the situation in our bilateral relations.”


At least six MPs from across political parties attended a dinner reception hosted by the Tibetan Parliament-in-exile on December 22. A week after this event, the Chinese embassy in Delhi, expressed its “concern” over their participation and asked them to “refrain from providing support to the Tibetan independence forces.

Reacting to the Chinese embassy letter, Sujeet Kumar, a BJD parliamentarian and the convenor of the All-Party Indian Parliamentary Forum for Tibet, said the Chinese embassy has no locus standi to write to Indian lawmakers on the matter.