China says Arunachal Pradesh part of it 'since ancient times', India retorts

China on Friday defended the renaming of 15 more places in Indias northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh claiming that the southern part of Tibet has been Chinas territory since the ancient timesIndia on Thursday strongly rejected China renaming 15 places in Arunachal Pradesh and asserted that the state has always been and will always be an integral part of India and that assigning invented names does not alter this factIndias reaction came in response to Chinas Ministry of Civil Affairs announcing Chinese names for 15 more places in Arunachal Pradesh which Beijing claims as South TibetWe have seen such This is not the first time China has attempted such a renaming of places in the state of Arunachal Pradesh China had also sought to assign such names in April 2017 External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said in New DelhiArunachal Pradesh has always been and will always be an integral part of India Assigning invented names to places in Arunachal Pradesh does not alter this fact Bagchi saidAsked for his reaction to Indias assertion Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a media briefing here that Zangnan the southern part of Chinas Tibet is located in the Tibet Autonomous Region of ChinaIt has been Chinas territory since the ancient times he said in updated comments posted on the Chinese Foreign Ministry websiteChina refers Arunachal Pradesh as ZangnanEarlier Zhao said ldquothe southern part of Tibet belongs to the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China and it has been Chinas inherent territoriesrdquoChinas ethnic minorities such as the Moinba and Tibetan ethnic groups have lived and worked in this area for a long time and many place names have been passed down he saidIn order to strengthen the standardised administration of place names the competent department of the Chinese government in accordance with the regulation on the administration of geographical names has announced the second batch of standardised names of places in Zangnan for use by the public which completely falls within Chinas sovereigntyrdquo Zhao said in the updated commentsThis is the second batch of standardised Chinese names of places in Arunachal Pradesh released by ChinaThe first batch of the standardised names of six places was released in 2017China claims Arunachal Pradesh as South Tibet which is firmly rejected by the External Affairs Ministry which has asserted that the state is an inseparable part of IndiaBeijing routinely protests visits of top Indian leaders and officials to Arunachal Pradesh to reaffirm its claimThe IndiaChina border dispute covers the 3488 km long Line of Actual Control LACChinas renaming of the places in Arunachal Pradesh came in the midst of the lingering eastern Ladakh border standoff that began in May last yearThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever