New Delhi: The Chinese military will conduct a joint live ammunition drill on April 2-3 on the Chinese side of the China-Myanmar border, Global Times reported April 1. The drill will be conducted from 8:00 am on April 2 to 6:00 pm on April 3. The government of Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture in China’s Yunnan Province has asked the vehicles and personnel entering this area to comply with traffic controls.
China shares a 2204-kilometre border with Myanmar on the eastern side. Myanmar shares a 1,643-kilometre border with India on the western side. China, which has a border dispute with India, has friendly ties with Myanmar.
Myanmar also shares a 520-km border with the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims its own territory. Beijing claims that Arunachal is part of Southern Tibet, which New Delhi has refuted repeatedly. Just last month, the Chinese military has reiterated its claim over Arunachal Pradesh, calling the area an “inherent part of China’s territory”.
On March 31, China released a fourth list of 30 new names of various places in Arunachal Pradesh. India has been rejecting China renaming places in Arunachal Pradesh, asserting that the state is an integral part of the country and assigning “invented” names does not alter this reality.
The Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs released the fourth list of standardised geographical names in Zangnan, the Chinese name for Arunachal Pradesh which Beijing claims as part of south Tibet. The official website of the ministry posted 30 additional names for the region.
Set to take effect from May 1, the implementation measures stipulate in Article 13 that “place names in foreign languages that may harm China’s territorial claims and sovereignty rights shall not be directly quoted or translated without authorisation,” Global Times reported.
The Chinese Civil Affairs Ministry released the first list of the standardised names of six places in Zangnan in 2017, while the second list of 15 places was issued in 2021 followed by another list with names for 11 places in 2023. The recent statements by China to reassert its claims over the state started with Beijing lodging a diplomatic protest with India over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh, where he dedicated to the nation the Sela Tunnel built at an altitude of 13,000 feet in Arunachal Pradesh.
The tunnel will provide all-weather connectivity to strategically located Tawang and is expected to ensure better movement of troops along the frontier region.
India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on March 23 dismissed China’s repeated claims on Arunachal Pradesh as “ludicrous” and that the frontier state was a “natural part of India”. “This is not a new issue. I mean, China has laid claim, it has expanded its claim. The claims are ludicrous to begin with and remain ludicrous today,” he said in response to a question on the Arunachal issue after delivering a lecture at the prestigious Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS) of the National University of Singapore (NUS).
“So, I think we’ve been very clear, very consistent on this. And I think you know that is something which will be part of the boundary discussions which are taking place,” he said. Beijing was also peeved over the US statement recognising Arunachal Pradesh as part of Indian territory. State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said on March 9 that “the US recognises Arunachal Pradesh as Indian territory, and we strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to advance territorial claims by incursions or encroachments, military or civilian, across the Line of Actual Control.”
