China’s Map Row: ‘Why don’t we start issuing…’, Shashi Tharoor’s advice to Jaishankar

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday suggested External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to start issuing stapled visas to Chinese passport-holders hailing from Tibet and stop supporting the ‘One-China’ policy. The remarks came after India lodged a protest against China's claim over Arunachal Pradesh and the Aksai Chin.

He agreed with Jaishankar's opinion that it's an ‘old habit’ of theirs (China) to put out a so-called ‘standard map’ in the past claiming territories that do not belong to them.

"So we have protested China's latest outrage, the issuance of yet another map claiming Arunachal Pradesh as their territory. Yes@DrSJaishankar is right, it IS an "old habit" of theirs. It's also their habit to ignore our protests. So are we going to leave it there? " Tharoor wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

The Congress leader also asked, “Is there nothing more we can do to show our displeasure? Why don't we start issuing stapled visas to Chinese passport holders hailing from Tibet? And stop expressing our support for the One China policy?”

Meanwhile, the External Affairs Minister rejected the claims as having ‘no basis’. “Just making absurd claims does not make other people's territories yours,” Jaishankar told NDTV while reacting to the Chinese move.

EAM spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, "We have today lodged a strong protest through diplomatic channels with the Chinese side on the so-called 2023 'standard map' of China that lays claim to India's territory."

"We reject these claims as they have no basis. Such steps by the Chinese side only complicate the resolution of the boundary question," he added.

India's strong reaction came a day after China officially released the 2023 edition of its ‘standard map’ that claimed Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin as belonging to that country. The map also showed the entire South China Sea as part of China, featured in the previous editions of the map. 

In April this year, Beijing announced Chinese names for 11 more places in Arunachal Pradesh which the neighboring country claims as the southern part of Tibet, drawing a sharp reaction from New Delhi, which outrightly rejected Chinese renaming, as per PTI reports. 

It was the third batch of standardized geographical names for Arunachal Pradesh issued by China's civil affairs ministry. The first batch of the standardised names of six places in Arunachal Pradesh was released in 2017 while the second batch of 15 places was issued in 2021.

The Indian and Chinese troops are locked in an over three-year confrontation in certain friction points in eastern Ladakh even as the two sides completed disengagement from several areas following extensive diplomatic and military talks.