We should watch out for China

In a recent exercise, China destroyed nearly 30,000 world maps showing Arunachal Pradesh as part of India. These maps were produced by a company in East China's Anhui province and were on the way to being exported to an unspecified foreign country. The maps were printed in English. Acting on a tip-off, customs officials of Qingdao city raided an office and seized more than 800 boxes containing 28,908 world maps.

It may be recalled that China frequently claims Arunachal Pradesh as its part and depicts it on official maps as a part of south Tibet Autonomous region and this is a bone of contention between the two countries. Interestingly, the Chinese company produced the map as honestly as possible but it displeased the Chinese authorities who always eyes and covets the Arunachal Pradesh region which undisputably belongs to India. So, China's true color now comes out reminiscing the adage 'What is bred in the bone will come out in the flesh.'

It may be pertinent to note that in April 2017, China renamed six places in Arunachal Pradesh in an apparent retaliation against the Dalai Lama's visit to Arunachal Pradesh, with experts saying that the move is aimed at reaffirming Beijing's "territorial sovereignty" on the region. So, India should be very vigilant and wary of China's moves to annex our precious piece of land in Arunachal Pradesh.

-T K Nandanan, Kochi