Explainers

Not just India: How China’s redrawing of maps is angering other Asian countries

China recently released its official 'standard map', which shows other countries’ territories as its own. India and other neighbouring nations like Nepal, The Philippines, Malaysia, and Taiwan have dismissed the map, accusing Beijing of claiming their territory. China has not even spared Russia

FP Explainers Last Updated:September 01, 2023 12:29:27 IST

India was the first to dismiss China's new 'standard map' and register a protest. PTI

China’s hunger for land seems to be almost unending.

The East Asian country recently released its official “standard map,” which shows other countries’ territories as its own.

The new map places Taiwan, Arunachal Pradesh, Aksai Chin, Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island in the Amur River, and the disputed South China Sea inside Chinese territory.

Related Articles

According to the China Daily newspaper, the map was released by China’s ministry of natural resources on Monday in Deqing County, Zhejiang province, during the celebrations of Surveying and Mapping Publicity Day and the National Mapping Awareness Publicity Week.

Neighbouring countries have strongly criticised the map.

Also read: Why does China keep claiming Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin?

India rejects Beijing’s new version of map

Borders have been a source of friction between New Delhi and Beijing for decades. Thus, when the new map was released, India, naturally, was the first to dismiss the map and register a protest.

It protested the inclusion of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh and the disputed Aksai-Chin plateau in Chinese territory.

“We have today lodged a strong protest through diplomatic channels with the China side on the so-called 2023 ‘standard map’ of China that lays claim to India’s territory,” Indian foreign ministry spokesperson, Arindam Bagchi, said in a statement. “We reject these claims as they have no basis.”

Even the Minister of External Affairs (MEA), Dr S Jaishankar, rejected China’s so-called “standard map” and asserted that simply making “absurd claims” does not give you ownership of someone else’s territory.

“China has even in the past put out maps which claimed territories which are not China’s, which belong to other countries. This is an old habit of theirs,” Jaishankar said while speaking to NDTV.

Also read: China digging tunnels, building bunkers in Aksai Chin: Should India be worried?

More rejection

The second one to speak up was the foreign minister of Nepal. Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines have since followed.

According to BBC, a Nepalese lawmaker cancelled a trip to China because, according to him, the new map did not account for the country’s updated map.

As per a statement on the government news website of the country, Vietnam claims that the official map of China published this week violates both its jurisdiction over its oceans and sovereignty over the Spratly and Paracel Islands.

The statement cited Pham Thu Hang, the spokesperson for Vietnam’s foreign affairs ministry, that China’s sovereignty and marine claims based on the nine-dotted line on the map are “invalid.” According to the dotted line, Hang noted, Vietnam “resolutely opposes all China’s claims in the South China Sea.

The Philippines said on Thursday it “rejected” the map because of its inclusion of a dashed line around disputed areas of the South China Sea that was subject to an international tribunal ruling in 2016 that found in favour of Manila, according to CNN.

The map is the “latest attempt to legitimise China’s purported sovereignty and jurisdiction over Philippine features and maritime zones (and) has no basis under international law,” the Philippines foreign affairs spokesperson Ma. Teresita Daza said in a statement.

In sternly worded remarks, the governments of Malaysia and Taiwan have also accused Beijing of claiming their territory.

Malaysia’s ministry of foreign affairs also rejected China’s “unilateral claims,” adding that the country “is consistent in its position of rejecting any foreign party’s claims to sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction on Malaysia’s maritime features.”

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) never ruled Taiwan, according to a statement released by Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday in response to China’s new “standard map.”

Foreign ministry spokesperson Jeff Liu told Taiwan News that “Taiwan, the Republic of China, is a sovereign and independent country that is not subordinate to the People’s Republic of China. The People’s Republic of China has never ruled Taiwan. These are universally recognised facts and the status quo in the international community.”

Attacking a friend?

Looks like China’s plan is not just upsetting India diplomatically as concerns have been raised the Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island, which Beijing has shared with its ally Russia since 2008 and is located in the Amur River, is shown on the map as a Chinese territory.

It is uncertain how Kremlin will respond to the latest development.

According to Daily O, the Vladimir Putin-led country may have chosen the road of silence as a result of Western sanctions that have rendered Russia more dependent on China for business due to its economic isolation.

Also read: Explained: Why it’s time for the United States to develop a BRICS policy

China’s reaction

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin dismissed the controversy when asked about India’s protest, saying that the publishing of such maps was “routine” and part of China’s exercise of sovereignty.

During a regular press briefing on Wednesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said, “China’s position on the South China Sea is consistent and clear. The competent authorities of China routinely publish standard maps of various types every year, which aims to make standard maps available to all sectors of society and raise public awareness of the standardised use of maps.”

“We hope relevant sides can stay objective and calm, and refrain from over-interpreting the issue,” he added, according to Reuters.

China argues that it controls more than 80 per cent of the South China Sea. To support its claim, China cites a 1947 map that depicts a series of hazy dashes, known as the “nine-dash line,” looping down to a point 1,100 miles (1,800 km) south of Hainan Island, as per CNN. In disputes with China about the location of the borders, Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, and Taiwan all claim portions of the same maritime region.

Also read: Is China behind PM Modi’s decision to travel to South Africa for BRICS summit?

India-China tensions

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has pushed an aggressive foreign policy and taken more forceful action in several significant flashpoints across Asia since he came to power in 2012. He has attempted to turn China into a global superpower.

A rare face-to-face meeting between Xi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in South Africa, where they pledged to “intensify efforts” to defuse tensions along the disputed border, was considered a positive start towards repairing their tense relationship. But days later, the map dispute broke out.

The map also comes after the 19th round of negotiations between the two neighbouring countries to settle their border dispute and ahead of a prospective meeting between PM Modi and Xi at the G20 summit in New Delhi next week, if Xi participates.

While it may look like there has been progress, analysts believe that might not be the case.

“India and China do take every opportunity to hash out their differences, but it feels like one step forward, two steps back,” CNN quoted Akhil Ramesh, a senior analyst from the Pacific Forum, a Honolulu-based foreign policy research institute focused on the Indo-Pacific. He added, “In this climate, while both sides may publicly express their interest in easing tensions, I do not see this happening. Both countries are working toward their own goals of being leaders of the global south.”

In the past, border disputes have resulted in war, which China won in 1962. The world’s most populous countries were divided in the years that followed by an imprecise de facto line known as the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Following a fatal brawl in the Galwan Valley, close to Aksai Chin, tensions between the two countries deteriorated substantially in 2020.

Since then, tensions have been building, and last December, when forces from both sides clashed in the Tawang region of Arunachal Pradesh, minor injuries were sustained, and tensions erupted.

With inputs from agencies