China renames 30 places in Arunachal Pradesh in 4th such list

"If today I change the name of your house, will it become mine? Arunachal Pradesh was, is and will always be a state of India. Changing names does not have an effect...Our army is deployed there (Line of Actual Control)..." the minister was quoted by ANI as saying at a briefing in Gujarat's Surat.

Earlier in the day, the Chinese ministry of civil affairs released the list of changed names in Arunachal Pradesh, which it calls as ‘Zangnan’ and a part of South Tibet, the Global Times stated.

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," the report said.