Saadet Gokce
14 April 2026•Update: 14 April 2026
China said Tuesday it has the right to name places in a contested area it calls Zangnan, after India rejected China’s new names for areas it says belong to it.
"Zangnan is China’s territory, and China has never recognized the so-called Arunachal Pradesh illegally set up by India," Global Times reported citing a Foreign Ministry spokesman.
India and China both claim Arunachal Pradesh, a large mountainous state in the eastern Himalayas. China refers to it as Zangnan.
China on Friday released the sixth batch of names for locations in the region.
Speaking at Tuesday's routine news conference in Beijing, spokesman Guo Jiakun called relations between the two Asian giants “generally stable.”
“China's policy committed to improving and developing China-India relations remains unchanged," he said.
He further expressed hope that the two sides would “meet each other halfway and do more things that are conducive to bilateral relations."
On Sunday, India urged China to refrain from actions which “inject negativity into relations and undermine efforts to create a better understanding."
India-China relations saw a thaw in 2024, and since then, both countries have been working to improve bilateral relations.
The relations took a nosedive in May 2020 when the two countries engaged in border clashes along the 3,500-kilometer (2,174-mile) Line of Actual Control -- their de facto border.
