China seizes 60,000 maps over Taiwan, South China Sea ‘errors’

Chinese customs in Qingdao, Shandong, seized 60,000 export-bound maps for what officials called “errors,” including mislabeling Taiwan and leaving out disputed features in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims as its own territory.

The agency reportedly said the “problematic” maps could not be sold because they “endanger national unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Maps in China

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Maps are politically sensitive in China, where depictions of Taiwan and the South China Sea carry territorial implications.

China Customs said the batch omitted “important islands” and did not include the nine-dash line that Beijing uses to mark claims over nearly the entire South China Sea. The statement added that the maps failed to mark the maritime boundary with Japan and omitted the Diaoyu Islands, known as Senkaku in Japan, Channel News Asia reported.

Authorities also said the maps mislabelled “Taiwan province,” without specifying the exact error. Beijing regards self-ruled Taiwan as Chinese territory and demands that it be called Chinese Taipei, while Taiwan has its own constitution and elected leaders.

CNA added that the maps lacked review numbers issued by China’s Ministry of Natural Resources, noting Chinese law requires vetting for maps and map-bearing products before export.

South China Sea disputes

The seizure comes amid renewed maritime tensions with the Philippines and longstanding territorial disputes with Vietnam, Malaysia and others. It also follows a weekend encounter in disputed waters in which Manila on Sunday accused a Chinese ship of ramming and firing a water cannon at a Philippine government vessel.

Washington condemned the incident and said it stood with the Philippines. Beijing claimed the Philippine ship ignored warnings and “dangerously approached.”

“We stand with our Philippine allies as they confront China’s dangerous actions, which undermine regional stability,” State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Thomas Pigott said in a statement. “China’s sweeping territorial and maritime claims in the South China Sea and its increasingly coercive actions to advance them at the expense of its neighbors continue to undermine regional stability and fly in the face of its prior commitments to resolve disputes peacefully.”

Have similar seizures happened before?

Similar enforcement actions have occurred before, including seizures of thousands of maps and charts deemed inaccurate or out of compliance by Chinese regulators.

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China has destroyed maps in the past, including disposing of about 29,000 maps in 2019 and seizing 23,500 maps in 2022 for comparable violations.

In 2022, customs officials in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, seized 23,500 maps that omitted the nine-dash line and China’s claims over the Spratly, Paracel and Diaoyu Islands, the South China Morning Post reported.

In 2019, officials destroyed 28,908 maps after a joint briefing by national and Shandong authorities, with China’s Ministry of Natural Resources citing “border marking errors” involving Taiwan and India. The ministry described the cache as the largest in recent years, according to Newsweek.

Chinese Customs did not say where the seized maps were destined or when the inspection occurred. Goods that fail customs inspection are destroyed, the BBC noted.