China has stepped up its rhetorical war with India by releasing maps that show large parts of Arunachal Pradesh as what it calls the Southern Tibet region and giving Chinese names to 11 places that are firmly inside Indian territory.

The maps released by China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs show a large part of Arunachal Pradesh as what it calls Zangnan or Southern Tibet. The places given new names include five mountain peaks, two rivers and two relatively populated areas. Two other smaller areas were also assigned different Chinese names. One such renamed place is near the Arunachal state capital Itanagar.

It wasn’t clear whether the Chinese renaming spree had been triggered by India holding a G20 meeting on Science & Technology in Arunachal state capital Itanagar on March 24. The Chinese had not taken part in the Itanagar meeting. China is, however, attending a two-day conclave in Tripura’s capital Agartala which began on Monday.

India’s External Affairs Ministry issued a sharp response to the Chinese maps. “This is not the first time China has made such an attempt. We reject this outright,” Arindam Bagchi, the ministry spokesperson, said. “Arunachal Pradesh is, has been, and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India. Attempts to assign invented names will not alter this reality,” Bagchi added.

The Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs issued the maps with the places marked in Chinese characters, Tibetan and pinyin which is the English transliteration of the Chinese names. It said it had “standardised some geographical names in southern Tibet.”

This is the third time China’s Civil Affairs Ministry has issued maps which gave Chinese names to places in Arunachal Pradesh. In 2017, it gave six places new Chinese names in what was regarded as retaliation for a visit by the Dalai Lama to the region. It did the same for 15 other places in 2021.

Asked by the Global Times, one Chinese scholar said: “China’s move to standardize the names in Zangnan completely, ‘falls within China’s sovereignty” and it is also in accordance with the regulation on the administration of geographical names.”

The Chinese move that has raised temperatures in India comes even though China’s Defence Minister Gen Li Shangfu is expected here later this month for a G20 defence meeting. Foreign Minister Qin Gang is also expected to visit India in May for foreign ministers’ G20 summit.

Both Gen Li Shangfu and Qin Gang are new to their jobs, having been appointed after the recent major reshuffle of China’s government. Gen Li faces sanctions by the US over combat aircraft and other arms purchases from Russia in 2017, part of the People’s Liberation Army’s modernisation effort.

The new maps’ contretemps comes days after China’s Charge d’Affaires Ma Jai sounded unusually placatory while talking to a group of Indian journalists, saying, “neither side wanted a war”.

The Chinese scholar quoted by Global Times insisted that Zangnan, “is located in Southwest China’s Xizang region which has been China’s territory since ancient times.”