Chinese map lays claim to Arunachal Pradesh on Panchsheel anniversary
28 Jun 2014
China has stirred up a new controversy by publishing a map that lays claim to Arunachal Pradesh, at a time when vice president Hamid Ansari is in Beijing to mark 60 years of the Panchsheel agreement between India and China.
The map also shows a large part of Jammu and Kashmir as part of China, which, in fact, it is also illegally occupying.
China's new map, which is meant to antagonise governments across Asia, starting from India to the Southeast Asian countries, also lays claim to the South China Sea.
China and India share a 3,488-km border and the latest action by China is part of an ongoing dispute between the two nations over the Line of Actual Control. China also continues to issue stapled visas to residents from Arunachal.
A report in The Washington Post said the latest map tries to give a comprehensive picture of China's territorial claims in and around, including the South China Sea.
China's new map also lays claim to swathes of the South China Sea that encompass almost all of Southeast Asia, including islands that are disputed by Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan and Malaysia.
State-run People's Daily has claimed that Chinese citizens would now be able to "fully, directly know the full map of China".
"Readers won't ever think again that China's territory has primary and secondary claims," it added.
The border dispute between India and China dates back to several decades and has even seen the two countries go to war in 1962.
Even the perception of LAC differs on both sides, as claimed by officials, and this has led to several Chinese incursions into the Indian territory.
In the latest LAC violation, Chinese troops entered the Indian side of the Pangong lake in eastern Ladakh on 24 June and stayed there for over two hours before being pushed back by Indian soldiers.
The publication of the controversial map coinciding the 60th year of Panchsheel - the five principles for peaceful coexistence that once formed bedrock of Sino-India ties – will only help to vitiate the atmosphere.
Also, according to Chinese officials, China has settled border disputes with 12 of its 14 neighbours except India and Bhutan