BY SAMMY JULIAN
Manila News Bureau Chief
MANILA – The first official large-scale vertical map of the Chinese mainland, which includes disputed islands in the East and South China seas, has been published in China and will soon be distributed to elementary and junior schools.
According to the military news portal of Hong Kong’s Phoenix Television, the new map, which goes against the traditional concept of horizontal maps, was printed by a publisher in central China’s Hunan province.
It includes contested islands such as Diaoyutai (Diaoyu to China, Senkaku to Japan) in the East China Sea, as well as the Spratlys (Nansha) Islands, Paracel (Xisha) Islands, Macclesfield Bank (Zhongsha), and Scarborough Shoal/Bajo de Masinloc/Panatag Shoal[ (Huangyan Islands) – disputed territories claimed by either Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines.
The vertical map also puts much emphasis on Hainan, China’s southernmost province and the nearest major Chinese land mass to Bajo de Masinloc, as well as the country’s geographic relationship with neighboring countries and oceans like the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean.
It will be recalled that in 2012 the Philippines protested the controversial maps in Chinese passports claiming sovereignty over disputed South China Sea.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) went as far as to announce that it will not stamp its visas on the new Chinese e-passport that includes a map of the disputed West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).
According to the DFA, the Philippines will instead stamp its visas not on the controversial Chinese passport but on a separate visa application form.
It said this action is being undertaken to avoid the Philippines being misconstrued as legitimizing the nine-dash line every time a Philippine visa is stamped on such Chinese e-passport.
Through this action, the DFA said the Philippines reinforces its protest against China’s excessive claim over almost the entire South China Sea including the West Philippine Sea.
The Philippines views China’s expansive nine-dash line claim as inconsistent with international law, specifically United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS).
The dotted line encloses the main island features of the South China Sea: the Pratas Islands, the Paracel Islands, the Macclesfield Bank, and the Spratly Islands. The dotted line also captures James Shoal which is as far south as 4 degrees north latitude.However, the Philippines argued that China’s broad claim to islands and adjacent waters in the South China Sea has no basis in international law.
In the 1940s when China was still under the Kuomintang, the Chinese prepared maps, made certain surveys and they made this drawing with the nine-dash lines in preparation for the first UN convention on the law of the seas.
It was in 1947 when the Chinese officially published this kind of map. The DFA pointed out that there was no opportunity for other countries to react because immediately after it was published, the Chiang Kaishek government was replaced by the Chinese communist party.
And from thereon the world did not hear anything from the Chinese communist government with respect to the nine-dash line.
The first time this surfaced again officially was on May 2009 and this came about because of the extended continental shelf submission by Vietnam and Malaysia before the UN.
Aside from the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam also protested the nine-dash line./PN
