Vietnam, Philippines Strongly Protest Against China’s including their territory in passport map

Philippines Strongly Protest Against China's including their territory in passport map. Photo: Filipiinamom.com 

THE Philippines has protested China's new passport design, which includes the image of a map of the entire disputed South China Sea.

China's new passports show a map including its claim to almost all the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) – provoking protests by the Philippines Thursday and Vietnam – but leaving out islands bitterly disputed with Japan.

Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario on Thursday said it was unacceptable because it impinges on the sovereignty of the Philippines, which has claims to territories in the West Philippines Sea.

"The Philippines strongly protests the inclusion of the nine-dash lines in the e-passport as such image covers an area that is clearly part of the Philippines' territory and maritime domain," he said, quoting a diplomatic protest sent to Beijing.

The so-called nine-dash lines take in about 90 per cent of the 3.5-million-square-kilometre West Philippine Sea on Chinese maps.

Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have overlapping claims to the South China Sea, which straddles key shipping lanes in the region and is believed to be rich in resources.

In December, the Philippines are hosting a four-party meeting with Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei in a bid to resolve the territorial dispute.

Beijing has been engaged in a simmering row with its southern neighbors over its claim to vast swathes of the West Philippine Sea, with Chinese maps having a "nine-dash line" that runs almost to the Philippine and Malaysian coasts.

The row saw a maritime stand-off with Manila earlier this year and took centre stage at the East Asia Summit, attended by US President Barack Obama, earlier this week.

China and Japan have also engaged in furious exchanges over East China Sea islands administered by Tokyo, which calls them Senkaku, and claimed by Beijing as Diaoyu. China saw mass protests over them nationwide in September.

The latest front in the West Philippine Sea dispute is travel documents issued by Beijing, with its new computer-chipped passport, or e-Passport, showing various islands as Chinese territory, including the Paracels and Spratlys.

Manila claims part of the Spratlys and Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario sent Beijing a formal protest letter on Thursday, calling the maps "an excessive declaration of maritime space in violation of international law".

"The Philippines strongly protests the inclusion of the nine-dash lines in the e-Passport as such image covers an area that is clearly part of the Philippines' territory and maritime domain," del Rosario said.

Foreign ministry spokesman Raul Hernandez added: "If we allow that, then that would mean acquiescence to their claim of the whole of the South China Sea."

The West Philippine Seais strategically significant, home to some of the world's most important shipping lanes and believed to be rich in resources.

The Paracel islands lie within it and have been held by China since it forced out South Vietnamese troops in 1974, but they are still claimed by Hanoi.

Some social media users in China said the maps had delayed them at Vietnamese immigration.

"I got into Vietnam after lots of twists and turns," said one user of China's hugely popular micro blogging site Sina Weibo, saying an entry stamp was initially refused "because of the printed map of China's sea boundaries – which Vietnam does not recognize".

Vietnamese foreign ministry spokesman Luong Thanh Nghi told reporters on Thursday that the Chinese documents amounted to a violation of Hanoi's sovereignty and it had protested to the embassy.

Officials handed Chinese representatives "a diplomatic note opposing the move, asking China to abolish the wrongful contents printed in these electronic passports", he said.

Other claimants to parts of the West Philippine Seaare Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan.

Beijing attempted to downplay the diplomatic fallout from the recently introduced passports, with a foreign ministry spokeswoman saying the maps were "not made to target any specific country".

"We hope to maintain active communication with relevant countries and promote the healthy development of people to people exchanges," Hua Chunying added.

In Tokyo, a foreign ministry official said: "We have confirmed that disputed islands in West Philippine Seaappear in a map printed on new Chinese passports.

"On the other hand, Senkaku doesn't. Therefore, we are not in a position to comment or complain." (http://is.gd/AlEA7q)

The Australian News 

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China new Passports’ map includes territory of Vietnam, Philippines, Japan & Taiwan

China begans issuing a new type of passport featuring an electronic chip that contains the holder's personal information on May 15, 2012. China new Passports' map includes territory of Vietnam, Philippines, Japan & Taiwan. Photo from: China.org.cn

China stamps passports with sea claims

Beijing has included its South China Sea territorial claims on maps printed inside new Chinese passports, infuriating at least one of its neighbors.

Vietnam has made a formal complaint to Beijing about the new passports. "The Vietnamese side has taken note of this matter and the two sides are discussing it, but so far there has been no result," said Vietnam's embassy in Beijing.

Other countries that have clashed with China over its assertions in the South China Sea, in particular the Philippines, are also worried China is trying to force their immigration officials to implicitly recognize Chinese claims every time a Chinese citizen is given a visa or an entry or exit stamp in one of the new passports.

The Philippines embassy in Beijing has not responded to requests for comment.

The territorial disputes in the South and East China Seas have overshadowed a series of summits of Asia-Pacific leaders in Cambodia attended by US President Barack Obama this week, with discord among southeast Asian nations over how to respond to an increasingly assertive China.

China claims virtually the entire South China Sea, including large swaths of territory that smaller neighboring countries say belongs to them, and Beijing has been increasingly strident in recent years in asserting those claims.

The claims are represented on Chinese maps by a "nine-dash line" that incorporates the entire South China Sea and hugs the coastline of the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and a small part of Indonesia.

The nine dashes enclose a region that is believed to be rich in undersea energy reserves and also incorporate the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory.

Until recently, most regional governments had assumed the nine-dash line represented Beijing's starting position for negotiations.

China undermined that view in June when Cnooc, a state oil company, invited foreign groups to tender for exploration rights in an area close to Vietnam's shoreline which Hanoi had already licensed to America's ExxonMobil and Russia's Gazprom.

The inclusion of the South China Sea claims and the nine dashes in the latest Chinese passport has raised further doubts about China's willingness to compromise on the issue.

"This is viewed as quite a serious escalation because China is issuing millions of these new passports and adult passports are valid for 10 years," said one senior Beijing-based diplomat who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue. "If Beijing were to change its position later it would have to recall all those passports."

China's ministry of public security oversees the design and issuing of the new Chinese passports, according to an official at the Chinese foreign ministry who declined to comment further. As well as the controversial map, the passports also include pictures of scenic spots in China, as well as two popular tourist destinations on Taiwan.

"The map on the Chinese passport is not directed at any specific country," the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement to the FT on Wednesday. "China is willing to actively communicate with the relevant countries."

Since 2010 China has taken a far more strident stance on its territorial claims in the South China Sea, as well as in the East China Sea, where it claims the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands, known as Diaoyu in Chinese, as its own territory.

The Japanese government has also paid close attention to the new Chinese passports but the scale of the map is so small that the islands are not visible and Tokyo has not raised the issue with Beijing, according to diplomats familiar with the matter.

The Chinese government began issuing the new passports, which include electronic chips for the first time, about five months ago.

"I think it's one very poisonous step by Beijing among their thousands of malevolent actions," said Nguyen Quang A, a former adviser to the Vietnamese government. "When Chinese people visit Vietnam we have to accept it and place a stamp on their passports . . . Everyone in the world must raise their voices now, not just the Vietnamese people."

Shi Yinhong, a professor of international affairs at Renmin University, said including China's territorial claims in the new passports could "demonstrate our national sovereignty but it could also make things more problematic and there is already more than enough trouble [between China and its neighbors over territorial claims in the South China Sea]". Prof Shi said it was likely that the decision to include the map was made at ministerial level rather than at the national leadership level.

The Taiwanese government told the FT it had "noticed" the new passports but had not filed a formal complaint with Beijing.

"The mainland should face the reality of the Republic of China's existence and our established foundation," Taiwan's mainland affairs council said. "We should put aside disputes and face the reality and work together towards peaceful and stable development across the Taiwan Strait."

Additional Reporting by Gu Yu in Beijing, Nguyen Phuong Linh in Hanoi and Sarah Mishkin in Taiwan. (http://is.gd/lA6BRt)

The Financial Times

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