India rejects claims made by China in ‘standard map’

Lodging a strong protest against China, India on Tuesday rejected claims made by Beijing in the so-called “standard map” and said they have no basis to claim India’s territory.

The Ministry of External Affairs said that such steps from the Chinese side would only complicate the resolution of the boundary question.

In response to media queries, the Official Spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, Arindam Bagchi said: “We have today lodged a strong protest through diplomatic channels with the Chinese side on the so-called 2023 “standard map” of China that lays claim to India’s territory.”

“We reject these claims as they have no basis. Such steps by the Chinese side only complicate the resolution of the boundary question,” he added.

The map released on 28 August by Beijing shows Arunachal Pradesh which China claims as South Tibet and Aksai Chin occupied by it in the 1962 war as part of its territory. The map also stakes claim over Taiwan and the disputed South China Sea.

The map also incorporates China’s claims over the nine-dash line thus laying claim to a large part of the South China Sea. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei have all claims over the South China Sea areas.

It was released by China’s Ministry of Natural Resources during the celebration of Surveying and Mapping Publicity Day and the National Mapping Awareness Publicity Week on Monday in Deqing county, Zhejiang province, as per China Daily newspaper.

Recently Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping met on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra had said that during a conversation with President Xi Jinping, Prime Minister Modi highlighted India’s concerns on unresolved issues along the Line of Actual Control.

“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,” Kwatra had said.

This is not the first time that Beijing has employed such tactics.

In April this year, China had unilaterally “renamed” as many as 11 Indian locations, which included names of mountain peaks, rivers and residential areas.