11 Arunachal Pradesh locations within Indian territory have all received new names from China as a result of the current India-China conflict. The latest attempt by China to escalate its confrontation with India without any help from the Indian side is this one. China has persisted in threatening or violating international law along the India-China disputed border for the past few years. In a recent Chinese publication, 11 locations that are shown on the map as being in Arunachal Pradesh were given new names and claimed to be a part of the Southern Tibetan region. One town near Itanagar, the state capital of Arunachal Pradesh, is also renamed out of these 11 locations. On Sunday, the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs made this decision public.

This is China’s third attempt to rename the places of Arunachal Pradesh since 2017. In its first attempt, China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs put out a list of six places inside Arunachal Pradesh. Lastly, in 2021, it again renamed 15 places of Arunachal Pradesh as a standard geographical name. 

In this context, concerns are rising about the legal meaning of such an arbitrary action, the history of the India-China relationship, the current deadlock in 2020, and potential solutions for the future.

Going forward, the need of the hour is for China to revisit the five principles of peaceful co-existence under the Panchsheel Agreement that it had signed with India on April 29, 1954, and enunciated the principles of mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty; non-aggression; non-interference; equality and mutual benefit; and peaceful coexistence.i