China had passed a new law on land borders on October 23 in 2021 which also came into effect on January 1. This new law has come into effect at a time when the border issues in eastern Ladakh have not been resolved entirely. China has also renamed some of the places in the state of Arunachal Pradesh claiming its part of the Indian territory by writing to Indian Members of Parliament.
The new law which has been passed by the Standing Committee of China’s National People Congress is for the protection and exploitation of the country’s border areas.
The law states that the state needs to take measures to safeguard the territorial integrity of the land borders and the state will guard against combat any act that will undermine these.
China has claimed 90,000 square km of Arunachal Pradesh as its territory. It has called that area “Zangnam” in the Chinese language and has made repeated references to “South Tibet”. Ministry of Civil Affairs of China had announced on December 29 that it had ‘standardized’ the names of fifteen places in the state of Arunachal Pradesh.
India’s External Affairs has responded by dismissing the Chinese claim and an official spokesperson has said that Arunachal Pradesh has always been and will always be an integral part of India. And giving out new names to places will not change this fact.
The naming of states had happened earlier also in April 2017, back then six places were renamed by the Chinese government. China has again renamed eight residential areas, four mountains, two rivers, and a mountain pass four and a half years later providing the longitudes and latitudes of these places.
This is just what China does to assert its territorial claims on the Indian territory outrageously every time an important dignitary visits Arunachal Pradesh. The first batch of names was released after Dalai Lama paid a visit to the state of Arunachal Pradesh, while this time Venkaiah Naidu, the Vice-President of India went there to address the nation, the second batch of names have been released.
Although according to the reports, the new laws will not impact the already existing laws in relation to the borders and treaties that have already been signed, it is still considered psychological warfare on their part. The Indian government has maintained diplomatic etiquettes with their Chinese counterparts but if the time comes, they will respond accordingly to the cheap tactics.
