At the beginning of the week, a very dubious map of the country was shown in Beijing, on which many countries that are in dispute or clearly belong to other countries under the jurisdiction of China are depicted. TMoreover, almost the entire South China Sea region was depicted as being under the country’s control, but this was also the case for many areas on China’s borders, parts of which were “separated” from Russia and India.
The map was not well received by neighboring countries. Beijing had a border dispute with India that escalated into clashes in 2020 over the Himalayan section of the border.. In the past, high-level meetings have tried to calm the dispute, but now tensions have flared up with renewed vigor: New Delhi has protested vehemently against the map claim. The Indian leadership stated that the province of Arunachal Pradesh is undoubtedly part of India.
But the expressions of opposition did not stop there, and soon Malaysia also indicated its disagreement with the border lines shown on the map. The Chinese Foreign Ministry has indicated that it rejects China’s unilateral efforts and opposes any country’s sovereign claim to the country’s territory.
Thirdly, the Philippines joined and expressed its rejection of this figure. The two sides had previously raised the issue of controlling the eastern half of the South China Sea to an international court, and in 2016 a ruling in favor of Manila in The Hague.
However, China ignores this, incidents in the area are regular and Beijing has now once again declared the area in question to be part of China.
Vietnam is also the fourth she expressed Objections, as Beijing also violated its maritime borders with the map. According to the foreign affairs spokesperson, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNOCLOS) also recognizes the disputed archipelago in the area as part of Vietnam.
An interesting side note is that China has also annexed areas on the map that are currently controlled by its ally Russia. Moscow and Beijing argued over an island in the Amur River for a long time, and finally agreed in 2008 to cut the area in half.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin also spoke on the subject:
We hope that relevant parties can maintain objectivity and calmness and refrain from over-interpreting this issue.
Cover image is an illustration. Cover photo credit: Feng Li/Getty Images
