China includes the West Philippine Sea as part of its territory in the 2023 edition of its standard map, which also claims parts of other Asian countries as its own.
The map, released by China’s Ministry of Natural Resources, features a 10-dash line—a line that supposedly signifies the scope of its territory—that claims the entirety of the South China Sea, a claim that a UN tribunal has found to have no legal basis.
The 10-dash line overlaps with the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the Philippines, including the West Philippines Sea, as well as the EEZs of Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam and Indonesia.
The government has not commented on the map.
Based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), a country’s EEZ generally extends 200 nautical miles from its shore, within which the coastal state has the right to explore and exploit, and the responsibility to conserve and manage, both living and non-living resources.
China’s latest map does not abide by the UNCLOS, since it includes several features of WPS in the 10-dash line.
The map also claims the self-governing island of Taiwan as part of China, as well as the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh and the Aksai Chin plateau, which are the subject of India’s recent diplomatic protest.
The release of the map comes amid China’s continued aggression in the South China Sea, including by deploying navy ships and maritime militia to harass foreign personnel, including Filipinos, patrolling the vast ocean.
China Daily, an English-language newspaper owned by the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party, said the latest edition of China’s map was released during the celebration of Surveying and Mapping Publicity Day and the National Mapping Awareness Publicity Week.
India issued a diplomatic protest to China on Tuesday after a Beijing map claimed land that New Delhi says is theirs, including territory close to where the neighbors battled in 2020.
“We have today 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,” foreign ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi said 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.”
India has been wary of its northern neighbor’s growing military assertiveness and their 3,500-kilometer shared frontier has been a perennial source of tension.
New Delhi said two areas on a map released on Beijing’s state-owned Global Times newspaper belong to India.
One was India’s northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, which China considers to be part of Tibet, and where the Asian giants fought a full-scale border war in 1962.
The second was Aksai Chin, a high-altitude strategic corridor linking Tibet to western China.
Fighting in 2020 that killed 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese troops took place in the Galwan river valley, which abuts Aksai Chin.
Tens of thousands of soldiers have since been massed along both sides of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) that divides the rivals.
They remain despite 19 rounds of talks between top military officials of both countries.
India’s protest comes days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a rare face-to-face meeting in South Africa.
Beijing called last week’s meeting a “candid and in-depth exchange of views,” but India said Modi had stressed that “observing and respecting” the LAC was essential.
Meanwhile, the US reassured the Philippines of its “ironclad” commitment to their alliance as the two countries celebrate the 72nd anniversary of the US-PH Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) that mandates the two allies to come to each other’s aid from aggression.
“The United States stands firm in our ironclad commitment to our alliance and partnership with the Philippines as we face new and continuing challenges,” US Ambassador MaryKay Carlson said, in a statement.
The US diplomat’s statement came after a visiting bipartisan US congressional delegation last week condemned China’s increasing aggression, including a recent water cannon attack on a Philippine re-supply mission, in the West Philippine Sea, and vowed to stand by its 1951 MDT commitments if Filipinos come under armed attack in the disputed waters.
The four-member American delegation, including the chairperson of the House subcommittee on the Indo-Pacific and members of the foreign relations committee, also promised to support an increase in security financing for the Philippines, which they said have received a “lion’s share” of American security assistance in the Indo-Pacific region.
The American lawmakers separately met with Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro Jr., Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo, and top Philippine Coast Guard officials.
During the meeting, they focused on growing alarm over China’s aggression in the South China Sea and elsewhere and the urgency of further cementing the US-Philippine treaty alliance with other security partners.
