New Delhi: India on Sunday (April 12) rejected China’s attempt to assign names to locations in Arunachal Pradesh, and asserted that such “mischievous attempts” and “introducing false claims and manufacturing baseless narratives” would not alter the fact that the state is an integral part of the country.Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India “categorically rejects any mischievous attempts by the Chinese side to assign fictitious names to places which form part of the territory of India.”“Such attempts by China at introducing false claims and manufacturing baseless narratives cannot alter the undeniable reality that these places and territories, including Arunachal Pradesh, were, are, and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India,” he said.The ministry’s response came after China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs on April 10 announced the new names of 23 locations.Jaiswal said that these actions “detract from ongoing efforts to stabilise and normalise India-China bilateral ties.” “China should refrain from actions which inject negativity into relations and undermine efforts to create better understanding,” he said.China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs has released a sixth batch of 23 “standardised” place names for what it calls “Zangnan”, referring to Arunachal Pradesh, in a move that follows a pattern of periodic renaming exercises since 2017.In May last year, China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs released the fifth batch of standardised geographical names. This had followed previous releases, including 30 names in March 2025, 11 in April 2023, 15 in an earlier batch, and six in the first list issued in 2021 and 2017, respectively.The latest list, issued on April 10, covers a mix of geographical features, with a notable concentration of strategically sensitive sites along the Line of Actual Control. Of the 23 entries, at least eight are mountain passes, alongside several peaks, rivers and a handful of settlements.As with previous lists, each entry is provided in Chinese characters, Tibetan script and pinyin, and is accompanied by precise latitude and longitude coordinates in the original notification. Earlier releases have similarly mapped locations across the breadth of Arunachal Pradesh, spanning Tawang, West Siang, Subansiri and Anjaw districts.Separately, China on March 26 has also set up a new county in Xinjiang province near Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and the Afghanistan border named Cenling. This is the third new county established in Xinjiang in over a year.In December 2024, China had announced that two counties had been created in Xinjiang’s Hotan prefecture, parts of which encompassed large section of Aksai Chin that is claimed by India.The Ministry of External Affairs later stated that it had registered its “solemn protest through diplomatic channels”. “The Government of India has never accepted the illegal Chinese occupation of Indian Territory in this area. Creation of new counties will neither have a bearing on India’s long-standing and consistent position regarding India’s sovereignty over the area, nor lend legitimacy to China’s illegal and forcible occupation of the same,” it said.In January, India had criticised Chinese infrastructure development projects in the Shaksgam Valley and said that it reserves the right to take necessary measures to safeguard its interests as it is in an Indian territory.The latest announcement comes even as India-China ties have moved towards normalisation following the end of the military stand-off along the Line of Actual Control in 2024, after a series of disengagement steps at friction points.