A new map of China’s national borders has sparked protests from governments in Asia after China’s borders included the territories of its neighbors – including a small part of Russia.
The map released Monday by China’s Ministry of Natural Resources lays claim to disputed land on the southern border with India and includes all of Taiwan. Off its southern coast, Beijing’s so-called “dotted line” covers large swathes of the South China Sea, where islands, reefs and maritime zones are contested by half a dozen countries.
Beijing’s longstanding territorial claims on its periphery are not new. However, under Chinese leader Xi Jinping, China has used its growing power to solidify its ambitions. In recent years, its neighbors have also faced increased Chinese coast guard presence.
Russia
Moscow and Beijing settled their centuries-old border disputes two decades ago in favor of political stability. The last territorial agreement, finally ratified by both nations’ parliaments in 2005, governed their shared eastern border, which came under renewed scrutiny because of China’s mapping service.
Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island, or Heixiazi, lies at the confluence of two border rivers, and ownership is legally divided between the two countries. China’s official map shows the entire 135-square-mile stretch of strategic land in the easternmost area.
The Kremlin has not yet commented on the map, which Beijing says was created using the “national borders of China and various countries in the world.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
India
Xi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met days earlier in a seemingly cordial manner at the recent BRICS summit in South Africa, and China’s map controversy comes two weeks before they meet again in New Delhi for the upcoming Group of 20 forum.
The Indian government and at least one lawmaker were the first to respond to what they saw as a land grab in the northern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, at the eastern end of the 2,100-mile disputed border commonly known as the Line of Actual Control.
Beijing considers the region to be part of Tibet and announced new Chinese place names there in April. The map also includes Aksai Chin to the west, controlled by China and claimed by India.
“We today lodged strong protests with the Chinese side through diplomatic channels against China’s so-called ‘standard map’ for 2023, which lays claim to India’s territory,” Arindam Bagchi, a spokesman for India’s Foreign Ministry, said on Wednesday.
“We reject these claims as they are baseless. Such moves by the Chinese side only make it more difficult to resolve the border issue,” Bagchi said.
Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India’s foreign minister, called Beijing’s move “an old habit.” He told Indian broadcaster NDTV: “This government is making it very clear what our territories are. You don’t make other people’s territories your own with absurd claims.”
“India cannot afford to remain a mute spectator of such Chinese activities,” said defense analyst Ashok Kumar, a retired major general in the Indian Armed Forces.
“India needs to develop a new strategy to proactively counter such measures. It would be ironic to host the Chinese prime minister at the G20 summit when such a measure was taken just before this meeting,” Kumar told Newsweek.
The map shows new territorial boundaries, but the land grab sparked protests in India, Malaysia and other countries. Ministries of Natural Resources, China
South China Sea
“A correct national map is a symbol of national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Li Yongchun, a senior official at the Ministry of Resources, said of the newly released map, which shows 10 lines encircling the entire South China Sea.
“Public relations and education about the national territory are an important content of patriotic education and an integral part of ideological work in the new era,” Li said. “Maps, texts, pictures and paintings can all describe a national territory, but maps are the most common and intuitive expression of a national territory.”
Malaysia was the first energy-rich sea bordering state to speak out against China’s map, which claims disputed features and most of the country’s exclusive economic zone. International law recognizes a state’s right to the marine resources within its EEZ, which extends up to 200 nautical miles from the coast.
“Malaysia does not recognize China’s 2023 standard map, which depicts parts of Malaysian waters near Sabah and Sarawak as belonging to China,” Malaysia’s foreign ministry said in a statement. “Malaysia is in no way bound to China’s 2023 standard map.”
“Malaysia believes that the South China Sea issue is a complex and sensitive matter. It must be handled in a peaceful and rational manner through dialogue and negotiations based on international laws, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.”
The Philippines, frequently blockaded by Chinese coast guard ships as it tries to resupply a Manila-held outpost in the Spratly Islands, said its foreign ministry would lodge a diplomatic protest because the map “infringed sovereignty, sovereignty.” Rights and territorial integrity violated”. of the Philippines,” said Jonathan Malaya, deputy director of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s National Security Council.
China’s Foreign Ministry said the map release was “a routine practice in exercising China’s sovereignty in accordance with the law.” Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Wednesday: “We hope the relevant parties will remain objective and calm and not overstate the issue.”
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 hardly have surprised anyone. Beijing has long laid claim to the democratically ruled island, whose Republic of China government retains control over Taiwan itself as well as a number of remote archipelagos, including two off China’s east coast.
Taipei has rejected Beijing’s sovereignty claims for decades but has recently increased its defense spending to match China’s expanded military footprint in and around the Taiwan Strait. The geopolitical and geoeconomic implications of an attempt to take the island by force have not been lost on Taiwan’s neighbors or its supporters in the United States.
Jeff Liu, a spokesman for Taiwan’s Foreign Mionistry, told reporters on Wednesday that “the People’s Republic of China has never ruled Taiwan. This is a fact and a status quo generally recognized by the international community.”
“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 neighboring Japan have a long history of disagreements. A new war of words erupted this week after Beijing moved to ban all Japanese seafood products in Tokyo in response to the discharge of diluted wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which was damaged by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
But northeast of Taiwan in the East China Sea, barely visible on China’s new map, lies the disputed Senkaku archipelago, which China calls Diaoyu and Taiwan refers to as Diaoyutai. The uninhabited islands are under Japanese administration – and protected by a US defense treaty.
The territorial dispute, in which Taipei rarely gets involved 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 autocannons – have defended Beijing’s claim to the islands by circling them almost daily and often anchoring in their territorial waters for days.
It is just one of several potential trouble spots in Asia where territorial disputes are erupting between China and its neighbors.
Li, the Chinese government official, said Beijing’s new map also had a “serious political and strictly legal character.”