S Jaishankar’s statement angered China, said in anger – India’s illegal occupation of Arunachal Pradesh, we will not recognize it

China on Monday continued to claim that Arunachal Pradesh is part of its territory, although India rejected Beijing’s claim as “absurd” and “ridiculous”. On Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian reiterated China’s claim, reacting to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s claim on Saturday. S Jaishankar described China’s repeated claims over Arunachal Pradesh as “ridiculous” and said the border state was a “natural part of India”.

Responding to a question from the official media seeking reaction to Jaishankar’s comments, Lin said the border between India and China has never been decided. Lin claimed that Zangnan, China’s official name for Arunachal Pradesh, was always part of China before being “illegally occupied” by India. He said, China has always had effective administration over this area. Claiming that it is an “indisputable fact”, he said India has established “so-called Arunachal Pradesh” on the territory it illegally occupied in 1987. “We have issued strong statements against their actions and stressed that their actions are ineffective and there is no change in China’s position,” Lin said.

In perhaps his first public comment on China’s frequent claims on Arunachal and China’s opposition to visits by Indian political leaders to the state, Jaishankar said this was not a new issue. “This is not a new issue,” he said in response to a question on the Arunachal issue after delivering a lecture at the ‘South Asian Studies Institute’ of the National University of Singapore (NUS) here. I mean China has claimed, it has reiterated its claim. These claims were absurd from the beginning and remain absurd even today.” He stressed that Arunachal Pradesh is ”a natural part of India”. “So, I think we have been very clear on this and we have had a consistent position,” he said. And I think you know this is something that is part of the ongoing border talks.”