Beijing has renamed 30 Indian villages, rivers and lakes in its latest attempt to claim sovereignty over a disputed border region.

Tawang is at the core of the India-China boundary dispute -

The Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs said it had “standardised” the geographical names of 30 locations in Zangnan, the Chinese name for Arunachal Pradesh.

The move raises further tension between the two nations as China reinforces its claim over what it calls “South Tibet”.

India has hit back, saying renaming will not alter Arunachal Pradesh as an integral part of India.

“If I change the name of your house, will it become mine?” Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, the Indian foreign minister, said.

“Arunachal Pradesh was an Indian state, is an Indian state and will remain so in the future. Nothing will be gained by changing names.”

Randhir Jaiswal, India’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, said: “We firmly reject such attempts. Assigning invented names will not alter the reality that Arunachal Pradesh is, has been, and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India.”

Tensions have been ramping up along the Line of Actual Control that separates the countries since May 2020, when soldiers from each side engaged in hand-to-hand combat and beat each other with nail-studded bats.

At least 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese soldiers died in the skirmish.

On March 9, Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, visited Arunachal Pradesh and inaugurated the strategic Sela Tunnel, built into the mountain at an altitude of 13,000 feet.

The tunnel will provide all-weather connectivity to Tawang, which is at the core of the India-China boundary dispute in the eastern sector.

Two days later on March 11, China lodged a diplomatic protest with India over Mr Modi’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh.

Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry responding to a question on Mr Modi’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh at a media briefing, said that “Zangnan area is Chinese territory”.

Mr Wenbin said: “The Chinese government has never recognised the so-called ‘Arunachal Pradesh’ illegally set up by India and firmly opposes it. The China-India boundary question has yet to be solved. India has no right to arbitrarily develop the area of Zangnan in China.” India dismissed the protest.

On Oct 24 2021, China passed a new law that essentially empowers the state to improve infrastructure in border areas and enable the settlement of people.

It calls China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity “sacred and inviolable” and enables Beijing to “take measures to safeguard the territorial integrity and land boundaries and guard against and combat any act that undermines territorial sovereignty and land boundaries.”

As many as 70,000 Indian soldiers continue to stay on the border for a fifth consecutive year amid heightened tensions between the two countries.