Free Tibet; go back China

Zangnan is the Chinese name given to Arunachal Pradesh, the easternmost frontier state of India, where India shares its border with Tibet (forcefully occupied by Communist China). This is the second batch of unauthorizing Chinese names released by the ministry. The first batch of names, which included six places in Arunachal Pradesh, was released in 2017.

The Communist Chinese regime has violated the sanctity of the international border between its occupied territory in Tibet and the Indian side at Arunachal Pradesh in various ways, given to their evil motives of regional expansionism and illegal hegemony over the transnational river water of the Yarlung Tsango-Siang-Brahmaputra River systems. At the same time, it clearly reflects the growing restlessness of the current communist regime to contain its own internal failings with such distractions.

The CCP is facing imminent threats from shaky internal security due to rising angst amongst the Chinese nationals towards the corrupt and impotent government, which is crumbling under post-COVID-19 economic sanctions and growing worldwide criticism for its repressive policies and abject human rights violations in all occupied territories, including Tibet.

The communist Chinese leadership fails to comprehend the fact that they make the biggest fools out of themselves by indulging in such foolhardy decisions as the unauthorised naming of places belonging to the sovereign democratic state of India. Their age-old policy of psychological subjugation has lost its desired impact in this era of information overload.

It is needless to state the historical facts validating the repeated attempts of the CCP think tank to psychologically occupy the mindscape of Indians residing in the frontier states like Arunachal Pradesh with such pressure tactics and further incite unrest in India through its covert India-disintegration campaigns, which will be carried forward by the Chinese compatriots of our country.

But this old game of CCP is outdated now; Indian citizens, Indian leaders, and world leaders are too aware of history and current situations to be fooled by these tactics anymore. Lian Xiangmin, an expert with the China Tibetology Research Centre in Beijing, told the Global Times on Thursday that it is part of a national effort to standardize the management of place names. The places have existed for hundreds of years.

Well, this China-grown expert has failed to consider the truth about the non-existence of the Chinese territory beyond the Great Wall of China in ancient times and the fact that the southwestern boundary of the Republic of China (1912–1949) was bound by sovereign Tibet. The People’s Republic of China arrived at India’s doorsteps in 1959, after the forceful annexation of Tibet by communist China. The wide expanse of the Eastern Himalayas known as Arunachal Pradesh existed for 100 years in an inseparable ecological continuum of the Yarlung Tsangpo-Siang-Brahmaputra River basin; there has been no connection, geographic or ecological, with China whatsoever.

The false claims of the present communist Chinese government over this territory asserted through such propagandistic campaigns simply indicate the long-term plans of ecological and political exploitation of this region by the CCP in the future. Communist China has built its economic boom upon the stolen resources of its forcefully occupied or semi-occupied territories. Tibet is its jackpot in this regard; laden with rich mineral deposits and the source of major glacier-fed Himalayan Rivers of Asia, the Tibetan plateau has been subjected to rampant destruction and resource exploitation since 1959.

With Chinese rivers devastated due to river-linking and the transfer of water to the industrial northern parts of China, the government is left with no choice but to steal the water of transnational rivers like the Yarlung Tsango, which flows down to enter Arunachal Pradesh as the Siang River and the Brahmaputra River in Assam. This river is the lifeline of the downstream people of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, and Bangladesh.

The false claims of the CCP over land, rivers, and mountains in Arunachal Pradesh validate its intentions of jeopardizing the use of the Yarlung Tsangpo River in Tibet through megadamming and the future transfer of water from this river to the dry north of China.

The second batch of names, which included 15 places, was issued in 2021, according to GlobalTimes. According to Chinese experts comparisons with the first batch, the ministry covered more places this time, including residential areas, rivers, and mountain passes. Among the official names of the 15 places, which were given precise coordinates, eight are residential areas, four are mountains, two are rivers, and one is a mountain pass. The eight residential places in the second batch are: Sêngkêzong and Daglungzong in Cona County of Shannan Prefecture; Mani’gang, Duding, and Migpain in Medog County of Nyingchi; Goling and Damba in Zayu County of Nyingchi; and Mêjag in Lhunze County of Shannan Prefecture. The four mountains are Wamo Ri, Dêu Ri, Lhünzhub Ri, and Kunmingxingzê Feng. The two rivers are Xênyogmo He and Dulain He, and the mountain pass is named Sê La, in Cona County.

With undisclosed reports of major Chinese activity in the Medog country where Yarlung Tsangpo enters Arunachal Pradesh at the Great Bend, also known as the Yarlung Tsangpo Canyon, it seems like a striking coincidence with this second batch of unauthorised renaming of places belonging to the Medog country (known as the holy Pemako land to Tibetans) by the Chinese government. This regional bullying of communist China is not just a political gesture; it has deeper implications of ecological catastrophe in this part of Asia due to the exploitation of Yarlung Tsangpo by communist China at the cost of millions of lives and civilizations dependent on the Yarlung Tsangpo-Siang-Brahmaputra River basin. The recent news in Globaltimes issued the official Chinese names of 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh, including two land areas, two residential areas, five mountain peaks, and two rivers, and listed the categories of place names and their subordinate administrative districts.

While communist China works unhindered on its agenda of regional expansionism, destabilizing India’s integration, and ecological exploitation of our rivers, mountains, and ecosystems, we must rise to realise the imminent threats from this regime to the very survival of the Siang-Brahmaputra civilization in the future.

India’s most beautiful and rich natural resources Northeast India is always facing this threat from China.

Our civilizations will not survive if we cannot save our rivers, our mountains, and our forests from catastrophe in the hands of communist China, and the only resort is to set Tibet free from this exploitative rule of communist China. Indians must awaken to this realization and come out to strengthen the Tibetan freedom movement in a definitive manner.

China was never our neighbour, and the illegal occupation of Tibet by the People’s Republic of China does not change this historical reality. India and Tibet have existed in a rare confluence of culture and civilization since ancient times.

The ancient Indian tradition of Buddha Dharma, which lit many Asian civilizations to their zenith, also enriched the great Chinese civilization since the 2nd century BCE. Buddhism continues to be the largest institutionalized religion in Mainland China. In a way, India ruled the entire continent of Asia with this ancient knowledge of Buddha Dharma; the Chinese civilization owes a lot to India in this regard.

The rise of communism has been the greatest threat to the rich culture and civilization of China to date.

The present communist regime in China is a threat to peace and stability in the entire world, and India has a greater role to play in deciding the future course of our world.

This is a high time for Indian citizens to extend unequivocal support to the Tibetan freedom movement. The independence of Tibet is peace for India. The future of the NE states of India depends on our ability to rescue the Yarlung Tsangpo-Siang-Brahmaputra River systems from the Chinese design of exploitation.

Free Tibet: A Voice from Assam, a people’s forum based in Assam, is raising a civil society movement supporting the complete freedom of Tibet from communist Chinese rule.

This includes a river conservation campaign, ‘Save Tsangpo-Siang-Brahmaputra, which is of national and international significance. This is perhaps the boldest voice of downstream people against the Chinese exploitation of transboundary river systems like the Yarlung Tsangpo-Siang-Brahmaputra.

This voice needs to grow louder; this movement in NE India should rightfully become a national movement for all Indians. The Tibetan freedom movement is an Indian cause.

The megalomaniac communist Chinese leaders must hear our voice; we do not sit as mute spectators of their trespassing. We exert our strength and our resistance to such unauthorised interference in our territory in all forms, be it military, psychological, or diplomatic. Victory for Tibet is victory for India.