The new map sparked sharp reactions from India, Nepal, Vietnam, Malaysia and Taiwan. The new document was released one week before the G-20 summit in India. President Xi Jinping was to attend but news reports now indicate he will not by Colin Clark for Breaking Defense – 01.09.23
SYDNEY — Waves of anger spread across the South China Sea and India this week, following China’s publication of a new official map renewing its illegal claims to most of the sea and adding new claims along the Indian border.
China’s latest hegemonic behavior appears in the form of what it calls the “new standard” map, published by China’s Ministry of Natural Resources on August 28. The new map repeats the 9 Dash Line claims made by China and rejected by the United Nations’ Law of the Sea tribunal, while also claiming new territory around Taiwan and to Inda’s north. This comes days after President Xi Jinping declared at the latest BRIC summit that “hegemonism is not in China’s DNA.”
The biggest furor arose, unsurprisingly, with India, where China has unilaterally claimed two new areas, angering both India and Nepal. But India is not alone.
“Most of the contention seems to be that it claims Indian territory – Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin – as Chinese territory, but it also claims some territory of Russia [Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island], as well as the entirety of the South China Sea and Taiwan,” Malcolm Davis, an Indo-Pacific expert at The Australian Strategic Policy Institute in Canberra.
“I believe there is also some suggestion that the way the dashes are drawn near Taiwan could indicate that China also sees Japanese islands in the Ryukyus as its territory. China had claimed the Indian territory, as well as South China Sea and Taiwan previously, but the re-assertion of claims to Russian territory and also the potential for claims to Japanese territory are new,” Davis said in an email. “The Indians have reacted angrily and formally protested the Chinese move, and Japan will certainly seek clarification on China’s intentions. Not sure how Russia will respond, given that Moscow needs Beijing’s support in the Ukraine war.”
As often happens with issues of sovereignty in the Indo-Pacific, different experts offered differ perspectives on what’s actually happening. Asked if the new map includes new claims, Ian Chong, associate professor at the National University of Singapore. said the “claims are not new, although the timing is surprising.
“Perhaps it may have to do with the Philippines and Vietnam publicizing use of water cannon by PRC vessels to block their vessels,” Chong continued. “Perhaps it may have to do with Vietnam and India moving to side with the 2016 arbitral tribunal ruling about the lack of islands in the South China Sea, which by extension means that features Beijing occupied cannot generate expansive claim. But all this is speculation. There remains no official explanation as yet. Then why bring in Russia?”
Local Reactions
The new map sparked sharp reactions from India, Nepal, Vietnam, Malaysia and Taiwan. The new document was released one week before the G-20 summit in India, where Xi was to attend but news reports now indicate he will not.
India lodged “a strong protest through diplomatic channels with the Chinese side on the so-called 2023 ‘standard map’ of China that lays claim to India’s territory,” Arindam Bagchi, a spokesman for India’s External Affairs Ministry, said Wednesday in a statement.
“We reject these claims as they have no basis. Such steps by the Chinese side only complicate the resolution of the boundary question.” Indian and Chinese troops have killed each other repeatedly in border battles over the two areas claimed by China, with the first fighting happening in 1962.
“Malaysia does not recognize China’s 2023 standard map, which outlines portions of Malaysian waters near Sabah and Sarawak as belonging to China,” the foreign ministry said in an Aug. 30 statement.
A day later, the Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs issued a statement that it “rejects the 2023 version of China’s Standard Map… because of its inclusion of the nine-dashed line (now a ten-dashed line) that supposedly shows China’s boundaries in the South China Sea … This latest attempt to legitimize China’s purported sovereignty and jurisdiction over Philippine features and maritime zones has no basis under international law, particularly the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).”
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