On Tuesday evening (29 August), India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) hit back at China hours after it had released the 2023 edition of its territorial map as per its imagination. In regard to media queries regarding China’s bizarre claims, the MEA issued an official statement rejecting the so-called 2023 “standard map” of China.
MEA’s official spokesperson Arindam Bagchi told the media that the Ministry has lodged a strong protest against the Chinese map which has laid claims on Indian territories.
Our response to media queries on the so called 2023 “standard map” of China:https://t.co/OZUwNRNrit pic.twitter.com/sAmy20DEa6
— Arindam Bagchi (@MEAIndia) August 29, 2023
He 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.”
Diplomatically blaming China for hindering in resolving border dispute, Bagchi further highlighted that with all these baseless claims, China is only complicating the boundary dispute.
He added, “We reject these claims as they have no basis. Such steps by the Chinese side only complicate the resolution of the boundary question.”
Earlier in the day, China released the ‘latest imaginary’ version of its territorial map in which it claimed the Indian territories such as Arunachal Pradesh and parts of Ladakh (Aksai Chin region) as its own.
Apart from Indian territories, China also included Taiwan and the contentious 9-dash line in the South China Sea.
It is pertinent to note that with this imaginative map fiasco, China has manufactured another controversy right at the wee hours of the G-20 summit. Notably, India is all set to host the G20 Summit on 9th September and 10th September. Despite being a global nuisance, China is one of the G20 countries and Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to visit Delhi for the G20 Summit.
The controversy came to light when the mouthpiece of the Chinese government, The Global Times carried a post. In the post, it stated that the Ministry of Natural Resources launched China’s latest ‘standard map’ on its website on 28th August. This is marked as the latest edition of the ‘standard map’ of the country.
However, China has been a habitual offender and has repeatedly claimed parts of India, including Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin. In December 2021, the Ministry of External Affairs strongly objected to China assigning its own name to 15 places in Arunachal Pradesh.
In April 2021, OpIndia reported about a Chinese citizen who made pro-China edits to open-source maps of the Line of Actual Control. In March 2019, it was reported that China destroyed over 30,000 world maps that showed Arunachal Pradesh as part of India.
In an act of duplicity, Chinese President Xi Jinping recently met PM Modi during the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg. He asserted that the two nations should hold comprehensive talks to ease border tensions. However, even in the backdrop of that discussion, and just days before the G20 Summit, China’s belligerent behavior in claiming Indian territories as its own displays a lack of sincerity on its part to resolve tensions at the LAC.
