India calls China’s ‘pseudonym’ a hoax

NEW DELHI: With China once again renaming places in Arunachal Pradesh, India has categorically rejected “any malicious attempt by China to assign fictitious names to places belonging to Indian territory”. India’s Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement that such actions undermine ongoing efforts to stabilize and normalize relations between India and China. The government further stated that China should avoid actions that would negatively impact relations between the two countries. Beijing has given Chinese names to 23 places in Arunachal Pradesh, the sixth such move in the past decade to bolster its claims to India’s southern Tibetan state. “China’s attempts to make false claims and create baseless narratives cannot change the undeniable reality that these places and territories, including Arunachal Pradesh, were, are and will remain an integral part of India,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said. India also responded after reports from Beijing that China had created a new county in Xinjiang province in an apparent effort to bolster security along the narrow Wakhan Corridor to curb the infiltration of Uyghur separatist militants. A report by PTI said that the district, named Peak, is located near the Karakoram Mountains and close to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and the Afghan border, highlighting its strategic significance. It is the third new county China has established in the predominantly Muslim Uighur region of Xinjiang in just over a year. India protested to China last year over the establishment of He’an and Hekhang counties, saying part of its jurisdiction fell within Ladakh. China has renamed places in Arunachal Pradesh five times in the past, in 2017, 2021, 2023, 2024 and 2025. The last time was in 2025, India called the event ridiculous and said the creative naming would not change the undeniable reality that Arunachal Pradesh remains an integral part of India. China claims not only Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh but actually the entire state, saying it is part of southern Tibet, although the Tibetan government-in-exile considers Arunachal to be part of India. China cites examples such as the location of the second most important Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Tawang and the birth of the sixth Dalai Lama there to support its claims.