What's in a Name? Implications for Indo-China Relations

By: Ashwani Sharma

MSc Chemistry, 1st Year

Email: sharmaashwani@iitgn.ac.in

Recently, the Chinese Ministry of Public Affairs released the “common” names of 15 locations in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. This is not the first time China has done this but, in 2017, China released 6 "official" names in Arunachal Pradesh. At that time it was considered a means of revenge for the Dalai Lama's visit to the province. However, the new list is much broader. It has 15 names covering 8 cities, 4 mountains, 2 rivers, and 1 mountain range, covering 11 counties in Arunachal from Tawang in the west to Anjaw in the East. The words will therefore be used in all official Chinese documents and maps, identifying Arunachal as “South Tibet” (The Five Finger Concept).

Renaming in accordance with the New Land BoundaryAct

The change in names came not only in itself but in a new “land boundary law”. The Border law, which came into force on Jan 1 '22, includes the various obligations of military and military authorities in China to take measures to "protect the sovereignty of the country". Mgmt . And trade. The issuance of new names is related to Article 7, which states to promote border education at all levels of Government.

Article 22 states that Chinese troops can carry out cross-border tests to counter-invasion, entry.

To understand why these declarations are important in India we need to know more about the Indo-China Border disputes.

India shares a vast border of approximately 3,488 Km with China . The border has not been fully demarcated and the process of clarifying and verifying the Real Control Line is underway. The Sino-Indian border can be divided into three sectors namely: (i) Western Sector, (ii) Middle/ Central Sector, and (iii) Eastern Sector.

But we will focus our attention on the eastern sphere. The 1,140Km long border is disputed and is historically called the McMahon Line, which the Chinese do not accept because the McMahon Line was agreed upon by the Tibetan representatives. China claims the whole of Arunachal Pradesh, an area of ​​about 85,000 sq km, as its territory.

In 1914, China-Tibet-British Simla Convention, Sir Henry McMahon, the foreign secretary of British India, built the 890Km McMahon Line as the border between British India and Tibet.

The line, drawn primarily by the highest water policy, is marked by unspecified/unspecified borders between Britain and Tibet. The line lists Tawang and other parts of Tibet in the British Empire. In the Arunachal sector, China treats McMahon Line as LAC. But it opposes India's claim to follow the water zone. China lays claim to Arunachal as "South Tibet" and is particularly committed to the Tawang region.

The Way Ahead

India’s Stand:-

India responded to the move saying that “assigning invented names” will not alter the facts on the ground Or Arunachal Pradesh’s status as an integral part of India.

How will This affect the Indo-China Border Dispute???

The main focus of the Border law is to provide legal coverage and to legitimize Chinese military violations across the LAC. The border law appears and gives new impetus to Chinese Residents Continuing to carry out infrastructure construction, including “Frontier villages” border areas, including others in conflict zones near the Indian-Bhutan border which are the only two countries China has its unresolved land borders.