Battle of the South China Sea charts

 A Chinese-made globe depicting the nine-dash line, which is disputed by the Philippines,

on sale in Manila.

Manila stores to pull Chinese-made globes showing claims to islands
Manila tells bookshops that globes depicting the nine-dash line convey 'misinformation' over territorial claims to disputed islands

Photo: Alan Robles

From South China Morning Post

Welcome to the great South China Sea battle of maps.
While fears mount over the risk of conflict or miscalculation in an increasingly militarised expanse, this particular skirmish has already been under way for years.

New map in Chinese passport fuels sea dispute

A very public front opened in the fight late last year when China, in a sly piece of cartographic manoeuvring, included its controversial "nine-dash line" claim to virtually the entire sea in its new passports along with other disputed borders.
India, Vietnam and the Philippines were swift to protest - and forced to launch bureaucratic countermeasures.

Less visibly, the battle of maps has been a long-running war of attrition as various claimants desperately attempt to create evidence of sovereignty.

 Tensions are rising as China and other south-east Asian nations vie for sovereignty over potentially oil-rich areas of the South China Sea.

Back in 2009, it was a map of the nine-dash line affixed to a formal Chinese protest note to the UN against Vietnam and Malaysia that, in part, inspired mounting regional concern at Beijing's diplomatic and military assertiveness.

China's nine dashes can be found in all manner of official and private contexts, from state-published national maps and airline magazines to route maps and corporate reports.

Three years ago, I noticed an inflatable beach-ball globe for sale in a Sydney airport bookstore.
As it was made in China, it naturally featured a tiny nine-dash line - not that Australia officially dignifies it.

Vietnam is no slouch on the cartographic front, either.
For years, its maps have included detailed insets of the disputed Paracels and the Spratly archipelagos - without spelling out the eastern extent of its claims.
One recent national tourism map - produced by a state publishing house - included both island groupings in considerable detail, right down to individual reef structures.
The typeface was larger than even that used for the capital Hanoi.
There is considerable irony here, of course - no tourists are yet allowed to visit the heavily fortified Spratlys, neither to Vietnam's 20-odd bases nor the significant number manned by the militaries of rival claimants, including China.
The Paracels, meanwhile, remain firmly in the hands of China after its defeat of the then-South Vietnamese navy in 1974 completed its occupation.

Intriguingly, though, Hong Kong seems like some kind of virgin territory as the fight rumbles on, judging by the SAR government's own maps.
While the government doesn't produce maps or nautical charts of the wider region, some Hong Kong maps include an inset that includes at least part of the South China Sea.
But, strikingly, unlike the Beijing-produced versions, the insets don't even show part of the nine-dash line.

The popular map "Hong Kong in its regional setting", for example, neglects the line even though it sources mainland references.
It is conspicuous by its absence, too, on the Observatory's website, which includes a regional map as part of its typhoon tracking feature.

Conspicuous, at least, to the Vietnamese and Filipino fishermen who increasingly turn to the website as they attempt to dodge typhoons in their quest for disputed catches.

Links :

• SCMP : South China Sea's history of boundary changes must not be forgotten
• Why Vietnam blog : offshore exploration and territorial tension (offshore-technology)
• GeoGarage blog : Vietnam demands China removes illegal EEZ dotted line on online map  / South China Sea : freedom of navigation / Philippines, China commit to diplomacy to end Scarborough standoff
• YouTube : Chinese Map in 1904 proves China's territory stop at Hainan Island