New Delhi: In a fresh diplomatic tiff, China on Tuesday rejected India’s decision to assign official names to 28 geographical features in Ladakh, asserting that the western sector of the boundary belonged to China, while New Delhi said Beijing’s objections could not change the fact that Ladakh was an integral part of India.“China has never recognized the so-called “Union Territory of Ladakh” unilaterally and illegally established by India, and firmly opposes the so-called “standardized names” publicized by India,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a regular press briefing on Tuesday (October 13).“This move by India is illegal and void and does not change the fact that the western sector of the China-India boundary belongs to China,” she added.Responding to the remarks, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal reiterated that Ladakh was an “integral and inalienable part of India”. “No amount of denial by the Chinese side can change this established fact,” he said.Jaiswal said the 28 geographical features had been identified by their standard names on official Survey of India maps in consultation with the Ladakh administration and local stakeholders. The exercise was intended to facilitate their accurate identification and improve public awareness, he added.The Chinese objection came after the Indian government announced on October 2 that it had identified 28 geographical features in Ladakh by their “standard place and feature names”, in consultation with the UT administration.The list covers 10 peaks, three mountains, seven land areas, two passes, two glaciers, one valley, one river, one lake and one water body. Among the locations are Gogra and Hot Spring along the India-China border, as well as features in Aksai Chin, which is under Chinese control but claimed by India as part of Ladakh, and in Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan.New Delhi’s latest naming exercise follows a similar initiative involving Arunachal Pradesh in August, when the government assigned official names to 27 geographical features in the state. Beijing also objected to that move, maintaining that India could not alter the territorial dispute through its own naming conventions.China has pursued its own programme of assigning Chinese names to places in Arunachal Pradesh, announcing a sixth list of 23 names in April. The competing exercises reflect the two countries’ efforts to reinforce their respective territorial claims through official nomenclature and maps.China’s statement follows on Ladakh is a reiteration since India reorganised the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019, revoking its special constitutional status and dividing it into the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.On August 6, 2019, a day after the government announced the revocation of Kashmir’s special constitutional status, China objected specifically to Ladakh being made a separate Union Territory. Foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said Beijing opposed India’s inclusion of Chinese territory in the western sector of the boundary within its administrative jurisdiction and described the move as “unacceptable”. India responded that the reorganisation was an internal matter. China reiterated its objection when the two Union Territories formally came into existence after two months. Foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said in October 2019 that the creation of the “so-called Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh” placed part of Chinese territory under Indian administration. He described the move as “illegal, null and void” and asserted it would not change what Beijing considered the existing reality on the ground.The MEA’s response, conveyed by its spokesperson, again stressed that India did not expect other countries, including China, to comment on matters internal to India, just as India refrained from commenting on other countries’ internal affairs. Kumar also reiterated India’s position that Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh were integral parts of the country.Beijing returned to the issue in December 2023, after India’s Supreme Court upheld the abrogation of Article 370. On December 13, Mao said the court’s verdict could not change what China described as the fact that the western sector of the India-China boundary had always belonged to China. She again said Beijing had never recognised the Union Territory of Ladakh established by India.The latest disagreement, however, comes against the backdrop of efforts to improve India-China relations after the military confrontation in eastern Ladakh in 2020. The two countries completed disengagement at the frictions points two years ago.Chinese President Xi Jinping even visited New Delhi for the BRICS summit in September, his first time in India in seven years. Both leaders said bilateral relations had made steady progress since their previous meeting in Tianjin in August 2025. Modi reiterated that maintaining peace and tranquillity along the border was essential to the further development of bilateral relations.