China has raised objections over Bangladeshi textbooks depicting Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin as part of India in a map of Asia.
Chinese diplomats claimed Bangladesh “incorrectly depicted the two territories” as part of India’s territory in grade four textbooks and on the website of the Department of Survey, calling it a “factual discrepancy”.
Beijing sent a letter to Bangladesh in November last year, requesting corrections to the maps and information presented in the textbooks and on the survey department’s website, Bangladeshi daily Prothom Alo reported.
In the letter, China said the Bangladesh and Global Studies textbook contains a map of the Asian region in which the territorial boundaries between China and India have been “inaccurately marked”, particularly with regard to Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin.
India and China share a 3,488km border that runs from Ladakh in the west to Arunachal Pradesh in the east. China holds a large piece of territory called the Aksai Chin in Ladakh that it won during the 1962 war with India and claims India’s northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh as part of its province of Tibet.
Relations between the hostile neighbours hit a new low in July 2020 after at least 20 Indian armymen and four Chinese soldiers were killed in a deadly clash in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh. It was the first time in 45 years that a clash on the border had led to fatalities.
Last year, New Delhi said it had reached an agreement with Beijing on military patrols along their disputed Himalayan border, marking a significant step towards resolving the standoff.
China also disputed the mention of Hong Kong and Taiwan as separate countries with trade relations with Dhaka in the Bangladesh and Global Studies textbook for students of grades nine and 10.
Beijing maintains that self-governed Taiwan is a breakaway province and has not ruled out the use of force to bring the island under its control.
China has asked Dhaka to abide by the “One China” policy and emphasised mutual respect for each other’s “sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity”.
The letter was followed by a discussion between diplomats of the two nations.
Bangladesh’s Ministry of Education and the National Curriculum and Textbook Board said the process of printing new textbooks had already been completed, which left them no room for corrections.
This pushed Dhaka to request Beijing to not exert pressure on the issue and reportedly assured it that the matter would be addressed in a coordinated manner later.
“We are maintaining status quo, not making any changes at this moment,” a Bangladesh government official told The Daily Star on Sunday.
