PHOTO: AFP/FILEIndia hit out at China for giving "invented" names to several places in a disputed Himalayan region on their border as Beijing looks to assert sovereignty over the territory. This week the Ministry of Civil Affairs said it had "standardised" the names of 15 places in Zangnan ("South Tibet") — Beijing's title for the region India calls Arunachal Pradesh — and gave them all formal Chinese names. Foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said "Southern Tibet is in China's Tibet Autonomous Region, and has historically been Chinese territory," adding the renaming came within "the scope of China's sovereignty". It fiercely defends and militarises the Tibetan border and brushes aside any debate about Chinese historical ownership of the region. The law calls China's sovereignty and territorial integrity "sacred and inviolable" and enables Beijing to "take measures to safeguard territorial integrity and land boundaries and guard against and combat any act that undermines territorial sovereignty and land boundaries."

Source: The Express Tribune December 31, 2021 23:27 UTC