Chinese government on Monday shared the latest map that showed Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin as part of its territory. China’s Ministry of Natural Resources released the map during the celebration of Surveying and Mapping Publicity Day and the National Mapping Awareness Publicity Week, ANI reported citing China Daily newspaper.
The map shows Arunachal Pradesh in the region that China calls South Tibet. China had occupied Aksai Chin in the 1962 Indo-Sino war as part of its territory. The new map was shared by Chinese government’s official mouthpiece Global Times on X, formerly Twitter. “This map is compiled based on the drawing method of national boundaries of China and various countries in the world,” Global Times’ post further read.
In the new map, China also included the island of Taiwan and the disputed South China Sea within its territory. The map has also incorporated China’s claims over the nine-dash line, thus, laying claim to a large part of the South China Sea. China also claims that Taiwan is a part of its mainland and its integration with China is one of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s vowed objectives. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have counterclaims over the South China Sea areas.
While releasing the map, Wu Wenzhong, chief planner of China’s Ministry of Natural Resources said that surveying, mapping and geographic information play an important role in boosting the nation’s development, meeting the needs of all walks of life, supporting the management of natural resources, and helping construction of ecology and civilization.
“The next step will be to accelerate the application of geographic information data such as digital maps and navigation and positioning in the development of the digital economy, such as location-based services, precision agriculture, platform economy and intelligent connected vehicles,” Wu told China Daily.
The development comes weeks ahead of the Group of 20 (G20) Summit, scheduled to be held in Delhi on September 8-10. The multilateral event will be attended by US President Joe Biden, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Turkiye President Recip Tayyip Erdogan and other world leaders.
This, however, is not the first time that China has staked claims on parts of Arunachal Pradesh, claiming these places are a part of what it calls greater Tibet. In April this year, Beijing “renamed” 11 Indian locations including mountain peaks, rivers and residential areas. In 2017 as well as 2021, China’s Civil Affairs Ministry renamed other Indian locations. Following this, New Delhi called out China’s expansionist plans.
Given these attempts, India has repeatedly told China that “Arunachal Pradesh was, is and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India”.