China has reasserted its territorial claims near its contested border with India by releasing “standard” names for dozens of places in the region – most of them in Indian-controlled territory.

Despite recent efforts to improve diplomatic ties with its Southeast Asian neighbour, the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs published its latest names for places in Arunachal Pradesh, which China calls Zangnan, and says is part of the Tibetan autonomous region.

The renaming of 27 places covered a diverse array of geographical features: 15 mountains, five residential areas, four mountain passes, two rivers and one lake.

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Each location was assigned names in Chinese characters, Tibetan, and pinyin – the romanised spelling of Mandarin Chinese – and accompanied by detailed latitude and longitude coordinates, and a high-resolution map.

“In accordance with the relevant provisions of the State Council [China’s cabinet] on the management of geographical names, we in conjunction with the relevant departments have standardised some of the geographical names in Zangnan of China,” the ministry said.

The move comes despite efforts in the past year to improve relations between the two countries after a long period of tension.

A deadly military clash in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh in 2020 sent relations into a tailspin. Twenty Indian soldiers and four Chinese personnel were killed in the encounter and there has been a military stand-off at the shared border ever since. The following year, another border skirmish in Sikkim state left troops on both sides wounded.

However, late last year China and India agreed to end their military stand-off at the Himalayan border.

Since then, senior diplomats from both sides have engaged in regular discussions, including a meeting in January where Chinese and Indian officials committed to resetting their bilateral relationship.

As part of that process, China and India agreed earlier this year to ease visa processes and resume direct flights – although no firm timeline has been set for restarting those routes. India also announced that Beijing had agreed to reopen Mount Kailash and Lake Mansarovar, sacred sites for Indian pilgrims, after a five-year suspension.

China’s latest move to rename numerous locations in Arunachal Pradesh may cast a shadow over these diplomatic efforts.

Most of the places on the list are on the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control, an informal boundary between Chinese and Indian-controlled territory. It is loosely based on the McMahon Line, which was drawn during British colonial rule, but each side has different views of where that line runs.

Beijing claims some areas south of that line as part of its own territory, calling it South Tibet. India refers to those areas as Arunachal Pradesh.

This is the fifth time China has renamed places within Arunachal Pradesh.

Starting in 2017, Beijing issued a series of lists – initially six locations, then 15 in 2021, 11 in 2023, and most recently 30 in March 2024 – most of which fall within areas controlled by India.

Last April, after the list was released, New Delhi’s Ministry of External Affairs rejected Beijing’s “senseless attempt” at “inventing” names and “altering reality”.

“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,” Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told India media at the time.

India media also reported last June that the Indian Army’s information warfare division had started to rename 30 places in China’s Tibet region in retaliation for the Chinese list, but no list was made public and no additional moves ensued.

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