Google Maps showing Chinese names for places in Arunachal Pradesh

Admin (2009-08-08 10:32:47) Permalink

Google Maps has always been more biased towards China over the Arunachal Pradesh border dispute between India and China. This time the Maps system has got it horribly wrong by showing Chinese names of all known and unknown places in Arunachal Pradesh.

Arunachal Pradesh (India) marked in Chinese on Google Maps
Source: Arunachal News July 30, 2009

How and when the chinese came up with the names could be part of an intriguing story. It's not really that hard to label the maps. Google Maps allow users to share names & places by means of a markup language (KML). It's very likely, some chinese hacker injected a KML file, the data from which is now showing itself all over the map of Arunachal Pradesh.

This gross misrepresentation of facts by Google Maps is plain annoying. I just have a feeling that Chinese are trying too hard.

Historically, Arunachalis have no semblance to Chinese. Geographically, the state lies to the other side of the Himalayas, thousand of miles from mainland China. It's high time Indian Government act tough on the boundary dispute which has been dragging on for eternity.

Google Maps showing Chinese names for places in Arunachal Pradesh