A new map of China’s national borders has sparked protests from governments in Asia after it delineated the territories of its neighbours, including a small part of Russia.
The map, released by China’s Ministry of Natural Resources on Monday, claims the disputed territory on its southern border with India and includes all of Taiwan. Off its southern coast, Beijing’s so-called “dotted line” occupies vast swathes of the South China Sea, where six countries dispute islands, reefs and marine areas.
Beijing’s long-standing territorial claims on its periphery are not new. But under Chinese leader Xi Jinping, China has used its growing hard power to advance its ambitions. In recent years, its neighbors have also faced the heavy presence of the Chinese Coast Guard.
Russia
Moscow and Beijing set aside their centuries-old border disputes for the sake of political stability two decades ago. The last territorial settlement, ratified by the two countries’ parliaments in 2005, resolved the problem of their shared eastern border, which had been under renewed scrutiny due to the Chinese map service.
Bolshoi Ussuriysky Island, or Hexiazy, is located at the confluence of two border rivers, and ownership is legally shared between the two countries. China’s official map depicts the entire strategic 135-square-mile sliver of land in its easternmost territory.
The Kremlin has not yet commented on the map, which Beijing said was compiled using “the national borders of China and various countries in the world”.
The Russian Foreign Ministry did not respond to an email request for comment.
India
Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met a few days ago, apparently amicably, at the recent BRICS summit in South Africa, and the controversy surrounding the map of China comes two weeks before they are scheduled to meet again in New Delhi for the next G20 forum. .
The Indian government and at least one lawmaker were the first to respond to what they see as a land grab in the northern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, at the eastern end of the disputed 2,100-mile-long border known as the Line of Actual Control.
Beijing considers the area part of Tibet and announced new Chinese place names there in April. Its map also includes the Aksai Chin region in the west, which is controlled by China and claimed by India.
“Today we have lodged a strong protest through diplomatic channels with the Chinese side over China’s so-called ‘standard map’ of 2023 claiming sovereignty over India’s territory,” Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson for the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, said on Wednesday.
“We reject these allegations because they are baseless. Such steps from the Chinese side only complicate the resolution of the border issue,” Bagchi said.
Subramaniam Jaishankar, India’s foreign minister, described Beijing’s move as “an old habit”. “This government is very clear about what our lands are. Making ridiculous claims does not make other people’s lands yours,” he told India’s NDTV radio.
“India cannot remain a silent spectator to such Chinese activities,” said defense analyst Ashok Kumar, a retired major general from the Indian Armed Forces.
“India should reposition its strategy to counter such actions in a proactive manner. It would be ironic to host the Chinese premier as part of the G20 summit when such a measure is taken right before this meeting,” Kumar said. Newsweek.
South China Sea
“The correct national map is a symbol of national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” said Li Yongchun, a senior official with the Ministry of Natural Resources, of the newly released map, on which 10 dashes can be seen encircling the entire South China Sea.
“Propaganda and education on awareness of the national territory is an important content of patriotic education and an inseparable part of the ideological work in the new era,” Li said. “Maps, text, pictures, and paintings can describe a national territory, but maps are the most common and intuitive form of expressing a national territory.”
Malaysia was the first country on the energy-rich sea to oppose the Chinese map, which claims disputed privileges and most of the country’s exclusive economic zone. International law recognizes a country’s right to marine resources within its exclusive economic zone, which extends up to 200 nautical miles from the coast.
“Malaysia does not recognize the Chinese Standard Map 2023, which identifies parts of Malaysian waters near Sabah and Sarawak as belonging to China,” Malaysia’s foreign ministry said in a statement. “Malaysia is not bound by China’s 2023 standard map in any way.”
“Malaysia believes that the issue of the South China Sea is a complex and sensitive issue. It must be dealt with in a peaceful and rational manner through dialogues and negotiations on the basis of international laws, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.”
The Philippines, which has been repeatedly besieged by Chinese coast guard vessels trying to resupply a Manila-controlled outpost in the Spratly Islands, said its foreign affairs ministry would file a diplomatic protest because the map “violates sovereignty, sovereign rights and territorial integrity”. “It’s about the Philippines,” said Jonathan Malaya, assistant director for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s National Security Council.
China’s foreign ministry said the release of the map was a “routine exercise in China’s exercise of sovereignty in accordance with law”. “We hope relevant parties can remain objective and calm, and refrain from over-interpreting the issue,” said ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin on Wednesday.
The governments of Brunei, Vietnam and Indonesia did not respond to separate written requests for comment
Taiwan
The inclusion of Taiwan on the Chinese map would have surprised few. Beijing retains its long-standing claim to the democratically-governed island, whose Republic of China government maintains control of Taiwan, as well as a number of outlying island groups, including two off China’s east coast.
Taipei has spent decades dismissing Beijing’s sovereignty claims, but it has only recently increased its defense spending to counter China’s expanding military footprint in and around the Taiwan Strait. The geopolitical and geoeconomic implications of any move to seize the island by force are not lost on Taiwan’s neighbors or its backers in the United States.
“The People’s Republic of China has never ruled Taiwan. This is the reality and status quo that is universally recognized by the international community,” Jeff Liu, a spokesperson for Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told reporters on Wednesday.
“No matter how the Chinese government distorts its claims to Taiwan’s sovereignty, it cannot change the objective reality of our country’s existence,” Liu said.
Japan
China and its neighbor Japan have a long history of disagreements. This week, a renewed war of words erupted in the wake of Beijing’s decision to ban all Japanese seafood products in retaliation for Tokyo’s discharge of softened sewage from the Fukushima nuclear plant, which was damaged by the earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
But to the northeast of Taiwan, in the East China Sea, and barely visible on a map of New China, lies the disputed Senkaku island group, which China calls Diaoyu and Taiwan claims as Diaoyutai. The uninhabited islands are under Japanese administration and protected by the US Defense Treaty.
The territorial dispute, which Taipei now rarely gets involved in due to warming relations with Tokyo, erupted a decade ago when the Japanese government nationalized the islands. Since then, China’s largest maritime law enforcement vessels — some equipped with automatic cannons — have cemented Beijing’s claim to the islands by circling them almost daily, often anchoring in its territorial waters for several days.
It is just one of many potential flashpoints in Asia involving territorial disputes between China and its neighbors.
Li, the Chinese government official, said the new Beijing map has a “serious political nature and strict legality” as well.
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