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Trying to provoke India ahead of G20 Summit, China has officially released the 2023 edition of its “standard map” depicting Arunachal Pradesh and the Aksai Chin region occupied by it post 1962 war as part of its territory. Besides that, China has also shown territorial jurisdiction over Taiwan and the disputed South China Sea, over which Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei too have claims.
State-run Global Times tweeted, “The 2023 edition of China’s standard map was officially released on Monday and launched on the website of the standard map service hosted by the Ministry of Natural Resources.” Justifying its aggression, the newspaper also stated, “This map is compiled based on the drawing method of the national boundaries of China and various countries in the world”.
Opposition parties joined the government in condemning Beijing’s repeated attempt to create dispute over the Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin region. Government sources stated India has repeatedly made its stand clear on Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin in the past but China continues to create controversy which, however, doesn’t alter the position on the ground.
‘Habitual offender’
Congress President Malikarjun Kharge said in a post on ‘X’ that the Indian territories including Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin are an indistinguishable and inalienable part of India and arbitrarily invented Chinese map cannot change that. “China is a habitual offender when it comes to renaming and redrawing maps of territories, belonging to other countries. The Indian National Congress takes strong objection to any such illegal representation or renaming of India’s territories.”
He advocated that the Modi government should not budge from anything less than the restoration of pre Galwan 2020 status at LAC in eastern Ladakh.
Though China has been posturing that it wants peace at the border, the communist country has been dragging outcome at friction points including at Docklam in eastern Ladakh that the PLA has to disengage to common mutual point at the LAC.
Border issues
Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, had expressed concern on the unresolved border issues in the western sector of LAC.
“The Prime Minister underlined that maintenance of peace and tranquillity in the border areas and observing and respecting the LAC are essential for the normalisation of the India-China relationship. In this regard, two leaders agreed to direct their relevant officials to intensify efforts at expeditious disengagement and de-escalation,” Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra had said in his briefing to media after the meeting.
Earlier in April, China had unilaterally “renamed” 11 Indian locations that were spread across mountain peaks, rivers and residential areas, stoking strong reaction from India. China’s expansionist design has rubbed other neighbours too the wrong way.
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