Why in news?

• In an attempt to lay claim to areas inside the Indian territory, the Chinese government announced it would standardise the names of 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh.
• This is Beijing’s third such list on Arunachal Pradesh, attempting to rename places by giving them what it calls standardised geographical names.
  • In 2017, the Chinese Ministry of Civilian Affairs put out a similar list of six places.
  • Again, in December 2021, released a list of 15 places that it sought to rename.

What’s in today’s article?

• Border dispute in Eastern Sector
• News Summary

Border Dispute in Eastern Sector of LAC

What is McMahon Line?

• The disputed boundary in the Eastern Sector of the India-China border is over the McMahon Line.
• Representatives of China, India and Tibet in 1913-14 met in Shimla to settle the boundary between Tibet and India, and Tibet and China.
• During the Shimla conference, Sir Henry McMahon, the then foreign secretary of British India, drew up the 550-mile (890 km) McMahon Line as the border between British India and Tibet.
  • This line was drawn from the eastern border of Bhutan to the Isu Razi pass on the China-Myanmar border.

The dispute between India and China is eastern sector

• The McMahon line moved British control substantially northwards. This agreement ceded Tawang and other Tibetan areas to the imperial British Empire.
  • Though the Chinese representatives at the meeting initialled the agreement, they subsequently refused to accept it.
  • Subsequently, the Chinese government stated that it does not recognize the "illegal" McMahon Line.
• China accuses India of occupying areas in Arunachal, which it calls part of Southern Tibet.
  • China claims territory to the south of the McMahon Line, lying in Arunachal Pradesh.
• China also bases its claims on the historical ties that have existed between the monasteries in Tawang and Lhasa.

Indo-China 1962 war and Arunachal Pradesh

• The Arunachal Pradesh border, that China claims to be its own territory, is the largest disputed area, covering around 90000 sq. km.
• During the 1962 war, the People’s Liberation Army occupied it but they announced a unilateral ceasefire and withdrew respecting the McMahon Line.
• However, it has continued to assert its claim over the territory. Nowadays, almost the whole of Arunachal is claimed by China.

News Summary: China announces renaming of 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh

• For the third time in six years, China has announced Chinese names for geographical features in Arunachal Pradesh, reiterating its claim to the entire Indian state.
• The areas that were named included two residential areas, five mountain peaks and two rivers.

Why is China giving names to places that are in India?

• China claims some 90,000 sq km of Arunachal Pradesh as its territory.
• It calls the area Zangnan in the Chinese language and makes repeated references to “South Tibet”.
  • Chinese maps show Arunachal Pradesh as part of China, and sometimes parenthetically refer to it as “so-called Arunachal Pradesh”.
• China makes periodic efforts to underline this unilateral claim to Indian territory.
  • Giving Chinese names to places in Arunachal Pradesh is part of that effort.

What does China seek to gain from making these claims?

• It is a part of the Chinese strategy to assert its territorial claims over Indian territory.
  • As part of this strategy, China routinely issues statements of outrage whenever an Indian dignitary visits Arunachal Pradesh.
    • It did so when the then Vice President Venkaiah Naidu went there to address the state Assembly in October 2021.
    • The first batch of renaming in 2017 had come days after the Dalai Lama visited Arunachal Pradesh.
• Also, Chinese officials claim that the standardisation was necessary since all names used in southern Tibet were inherited through word-of-mouth for generations by minority ethnic groups.
• Hence, these names reflect that China’s proposal on the sovereignty claim of the region has a prominent historical, cultural, administrative and jurisdictional
• Laying aggressive claims to territories on the basis of alleged historical injustices done to China is a part of Beijing’s foreign policy playbook.
  • The claim on Taiwan is one such example.
  • Also, consistent efforts are being made by China to change the facts on the ground in several disputed islands in the South China Sea.