🔗 Share this article

Chinese customs officers in the coastal province of Shandong have confiscated 60,000 maps that "improperly identified" the self-governed island of Taiwan, which Beijing considers part of its sovereign land.

The maps, officials stated, also "omitted important islands" in the disputed South China Sea waters, where Beijing's claims overlap with those of its regional neighbors, including the Philippines and Vietnam.

The "problematic" maps, c intended for foreign distribution, cannot be sold because they "compromise national unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity" of China, authorities said.

Cartographic materials are a contentious issue for Chinese authorities and its rivals for coral formations, maritime features and outcrops in the South China Sea.

Detailed Violations

China Customs stated that the maps also failed to include the nine-segment line, which defines China's territorial assertion over nearly the entire South China Sea.

The boundary consists of nine dashes which stretches numerous nautical miles southeastward from its most southerly province of Hainan.

The seized maps also did not mark the sea border between China and Japan, officials confirmed.

Taiwan Situation

Officials stated the maps incorrectly labeled "the Taiwan region", without specifying what exactly the improper identification was.

The Chinese government considers self-ruled Taiwan as its sovereign land and has kept open the possibility of the use of force to take the island. But Taiwanese authorities sees itself as different from the Chinese mainland, with its own constitution and elected leadership.

Geopolitical Tensions

Conflicts in the disputed maritime region periodically escalate - most recently over the weekend, when ships from China and the Philippine government figured in another encounter.

Philippine authorities alleged a Chinese ship of deliberately ramming and firing its water cannon at a government-owned Philippine craft.

But Beijing claimed the encounter happened after the Philippine ship ignored repeated warnings and "dangerously approached" the China's maritime craft.

Historical Precedents

The Philippines and Vietnamese authorities are also highly vigilant to portrayals of the disputed maritime region in cartographic materials.

The popular motion picture from last year was banned in the Vietnamese market and censored in the Philippines for displaying a maritime chart with the nine-segment boundary.

The announcement from customs authorities did not indicate where the seized maps were intended to be sold. China provides much of the world's goods, from Christmas lights to stationery.

The confiscation of "problematic maps" by China's border authorities is not uncommon - though the quantity of the maps confiscated in the Shandong region significantly exceeds previous confiscations. Goods that do not meet standards at the border control are destroyed.

In spring, border authorities at an air transportation hub in Qingdao confiscated a shipment of 143 marine maps that included "apparent inaccuracies" in the national borders.

In late summer, customs officers in Hebei province seized two "violating cartographic materials" that, besides other problems, featured a "misdrawing" of the Tibetan border.