India's former army chief says 'someone got map of China as it really is'

India's former Chief of Army Staff General Manoj Naravane (Retd) has shared a map of China, which according to him is the actual geographical representation of the nation, much smaller than it claims. 

The new map, showing the territories which were captured by China, has been circulating on social media forums for a while, but it got amplified after Naravane's post on Tuesday (September 12). 

"Finally someone has got the map of China as it really is," he wrote in the caption of the post, without revealing the source of the photo. 

The map shows regions as they used to be decades ago. On the western side, it shows Tibet and East Turkestan (former independent states) which acted as a buffer between India and China. 

It highlights the fact that India and China never shared a border before the 1950s - the annexation of Tibet by the People's Liberation Army in 1950, just a year after the People's Republic of China was established by Mao Zedong in 1949. 

The map also shows Chinese-occupied south Mongolia, Yunnan, Manchuria, and the Chinese-occupied India's Ladakh. Chinese occupations over the years have changed the map, which is still contested. 

Disclaimer: WION cannot independently verify the authenticity of photos and videos shared on social media.

In the present scenario, India and China do share a border, but the conflicts persist. A document by the Indian government noted that the nation shares 3488 km of border with China that runs along the States of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. 

The document states that the "border is not fully demarcated and the process of clarifying and
confirming the Line of Actual Control is in progress". 

China map row

This map was floated just a few days after the Chinese map controversy as Bejing claimed regions beyond its border by officially releasing the 2023 edition of its so-called "standard map". 

The map shows certain areas, including parts of India's Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Aksai Chin region, Taiwan and some regions of the disputed South China Sea, as part of China. 

State-run Global Times said in a post on social media that the "2023 edition of China's standard map was officially released on Monday and launched on the website of the standard map service hosted by the Ministry of Natural Resources". 

India strongly protested the release of the controversial map, saying "we reject these claims as they have no basis. Such steps by the Chinese side only complicate the resolution of the boundary question". 

WATCH WION LIVE HERE

You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.