Beijing on Monday released this year’s edition of China’s standardized official map. On the map, Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin are drawn as Chinese, which angered India. In Delhi they are seen as Indian.
— Putting something on a map means nothing. These areas are very much Indian, says Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar to the Indian television channel NDTV.
His ministry has therefore sent “a sharp formal protest through diplomatic channels”, it reports Times of India.
No official limit
The countries have been in conflict for decades over several areas, of which Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin together with the state of Sikkim are the major timber issues.
For Arunachal Pradesh – which China calls Southern Tibet – there is no official border, but India controls the area east of Bhutan. Steering is also considered to be done in Aksai Chin, a region where India, China and Pakistan meet.
— We have been very clear about which regions are ours. Making absurd claims does not make someone else’s territories theirs, says Jaishankar.
Even Taiwan
As recently as last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi were said to have held “sincere and deep” talks to ease tensions along the countries’ disputed border in the Himalayas.
The tense situation in the area worsened in 2020 when 20 Indian and at least four Chinese soldiers were killed in unrest. Since then, tens of thousands of soldiers have been deployed in the border areas.
In addition to the Indian regions, self-governing Taiwan and the disputed South China Sea are inscribed as Chinese on the new map.