Alley Cat | What’s in the name?Geopolitical forces | World News

In July 2017, Indonesia made a diplomatic move that could make China proud of some parts of the multiverse: Jakarta placed part of the South China Sea (SCS) – within Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone but claimed by Beijing ——Renamed North Natuna Sea.

The renamed waters are located north of the Natuna Islands at the southern tip of the South China Sea, but within China’s “nine-dash line”.

The “nine-dash line,” the internationally contested demarcation line, is wielded by Beijing with sweeping claims over nearly the entire resource-rich South China Sea: more than 80 percent, by some estimates.

China’s response to Jakarta’s move was succinct.

“The so-called name change is meaningless, and it is not conducive to efforts to standardize geographical names internationally,” Geng Shuang, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry at the time, responded in Beijing, saying that the name change may affect “the current hard-won good situation in the South China Sea.”

It “…makes no sense at all…” Really?

Three months ago, a day after Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama concluded a visit to Arunachal Pradesh, angry China renamed Arunachal Pradesh (which Beijing calls Tibetan South or “South Tibet” in Chinese). Northeastern state of India.

The announcement was made on April 13, 2017, following a high-profile nine-day visit by the Dalai Lama to the Associated Press.

Since then, Beijing has done the same thing twice in India: once in December 2021 and most recently earlier this month.

The 2017 announcement included six Arunachal sites, while the second batch for 2021 included 15 sites.

This time, China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs announced the name changes and precise geographic coordinates of these 11 places in early April.

It included two residential areas, five mountain peaks and two rivers in AP, and listed administrative divisions, the state-run tabloid Global Times reported on April 3.

“Looking at the list of 11 places, most are unknown or remote areas. Three are close to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) – namely Pangchen, a village within the Zimitang circle that has a 1962 relationship with China the historical context of the border wars; then Chakmutse Gangri, Taksing near Upper Subansiri, and finally Goyul Thang, a small flat land near Kaho on the Lohit River,” Claude Alpi, an India-based Tibet expert, wrote on his blog He also shared the blog with others. HT.

“With the exception of Banchen Village, these places are small and unknown even to most Nanye Immortals,” Alpi wrote.

The Chinese cabinet released the Chinese characters, Tibetan and Pinyin transliteration tables of 11 new place names “according to the regulations on place names issued by the State Council”.

“This is not the first time China has made such an attempt. We categorically reject it,” foreign ministry spokesman Arindam Bachi said in New Delhi.

“AP is an integral part of India. Trying to assign fictitious names will not change this reality,” he added.

What prompted China to rename the Associated Press this time? In addition to Beijing’s continued attempts to assert sovereignty in disputed areas, at least two immediate causes seem likely.

First, the announcement came days before Home Minister Amit Shah visited the state to launch the Vibrant Villages Program (VVP).

VVP, the financial allocation is ¥$48 million from 2022-23 to 2025-26 will provide funding for “…in 19 territories and 46 border blocks (in) 4 states and 1 UT (Union Territory) developing basic infrastructure and creating livelihood opportunities on the northern land border of the country,” the Press Information Bureau (PIB) said in a statement afterwards.

In the first phase, 663 villages participated in the program.

China’s decision appears to be directly related to the VVP, an effort by New Delhi to match Beijing’s rapid development of its villages under the Xiaokang (Xiaokang) program to modernize border villages.

A second reason may be Beijing’s recognition to Washington of the McMahon Line as the international boundary between India and China — a line Beijing has never recognized — and its public statement in March that the AP is an integral part of India angry response.

“This bipartisan resolution expresses the support of the (U.S.) Senate to explicitly recognize Arunachal Pradesh as an integral part of India, condemn Chinese military aggression to change the status quo along the LAC, and further strengthen the U.S.-India strategic partnership and The Quartet supports a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Senators Bill Hagerty and Jeff Merkley said when they introduced the resolution on the Senate floor in March.

The name change is “a timely countermeasure against the United States’ recognition of the McMahon Line as the Sino-Indian international boundary, and it is also a major move to weaken India’s illegal territorial claim to ‘South Tibet’,” said Nian Peng, director of the Haikou News Center. – Says the Center for Asian Studies (RCAS).

“It can consolidate national sovereignty and enhance administrative jurisdiction over disputed territories controlled by China. It can also strengthen the military deployment of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) along the Line of Actual Control,” Nian said.

It seems pointless to change the name of another country’s place name as a “countermeasure” against a third country, or to assume that changing the name of a disputed area can “consolidate national sovereignty”.

So why is China doing this, whether in Arunachal Pradesh, the South China Sea, or in Russia, where it recently standardized the Chinese names of eight cities, including the name of Vladivostok?

Bill Hayton, an associate fellow at Chatham House’s Asia-Pacific program and author of books on China and Vietnam, said the practice of renaming sites in disputed areas was meant to “instill a sense of anxiety about loss of territory”.

“This goes back at least to the 1920s. Most of these claims are specious and show some misunderstanding of East Asian history. These misunderstandings leave a dangerous legacy in modern times,” Hyten said.

Now that China is trying to make territorial claims in any way possible, Hyten added: “Renaming disputed features in disputed areas or naming unnamed features has become common in the South China Sea.”

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, but has disputes over ownership of islands and reefs with several maritime neighbors including the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia, in addition to Vietnam and Taiwan, which Beijing calls a breakaway zone.

For example, in 2020, China named 80 features in the disputed South China Sea, including features in the Paracel Islands and Nansha Islands; including 25 islands, shoals, and reefs, and 55 oceanic ridges.

The last such exercise was conducted in 1983, when China named 287 features in the area.

“It seems like a way for Chinese officials to seem like they’re doing something to support China’s territorial claims. It’s actually a pointless gesture, but it makes them feel good,” Hyten said.

Meanwhile, life in Indonesia’s North Natuna Sea continues as usual.

Indonesian Navy Commander Laksamana Madya Muhammad Ali told Reuters that in January, Jakarta deployed a warship, maritime patrol aircraft and drones to monitor a Chinese coast guard vessel in the area.

And not just any coast guard vessel, but CCG 5901, the largest coast guard vessel in the world, is reportedly dubbed “The Monster.”

Jakarta must have realized that the renaming is a bit pointless.

HT Senior China Hand Sutirtho Patranobis writes a weekly column in Beijing exclusively for HT Premium readers.He previously worked in Colombo, Sri Lanka, covering the final stages of the civil war and its aftermath, and spent several years in Delhi before that.

Opinions expressed are personal