Beijing:

Governments of the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Taiwan on Thursday joined India in rejecting China’s new nationwide map, issuing strongly worded statements accusing Beijing of claiming their territory.

China revealed a brand new model of its nationwide map on Monday to appropriate what Beijing has previously known as “problematic maps” that it claims misrepresent its territorial borders.

India on Tuesday lodged a powerful protest with China over its so-called “customary map” laying declare over Arunachal Pradesh and the Aksai Chin, and asserted that such steps solely complicate the decision of the boundary query.

The Exterior Affairs Ministry additionally rejected China’s claims as having “no foundation”.

“Simply making absurd claims doesn’t make different individuals’s territories yours,” Exterior Affairs Minister S Jaishankar stated whereas reacting to the Chinese language transfer.

The Philippine authorities on Thursday slammed China’s 2023 version of its so-called “customary map” that also exhibits swaths of Philippine options within the West Philippine Sea.

The Chinese language Ministry of Pure Assets issued on August 28 a controversial map that features the nine-dash line, now a 10-dash line, that supposedly exhibits China’s boundaries within the South China Sea.

“This newest try and legitimise China’s purported sovereignty and jurisdiction over Philippine options and maritime zones has no foundation beneath worldwide regulation, significantly the 1982 United Nations Conference on the Regulation of the Sea (UNCLOS),” International Affairs Spokesperson Ma. Teresita Daza stated in an announcement.

Daza stated the 2016 Arbitral Award has already invalidated the nine-dashed line and referred to as on China to abide by its obligations beneath UNCLOS.

“(The award) categorically said that ‘maritime areas of the South China Sea encompassed by the related a part of the ‘nine-dash line’ are opposite to the Conference and with out lawful impact to the extent that they exceed the geographic and substantive limits of China’s maritime entitlements beneath the Conference,” Daza was quoted as saying by the official Philippine Information Company.

“The Philippines, due to this fact, calls on China to behave responsibly and abide by its obligations beneath UNCLOS and the ultimate and binding 2016 Arbitral Award,” she added.

Manila had already protested the publication of a Chinese language nationwide map in 2013, which additionally positioned components of the Kalayaan Island Group or Spratlys inside Beijing’s “nationwide boundaries”.

The Malaysian authorities stated on Thursday that it’ll ship a protest observe to China over the latter’s claims on the South China Sea as outlined within the ‘China Customary Map Version 2023’, which additionally covers Malaysia’s maritime areas.

International Minister Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir stated the transfer was a follow-up step taken by the federal government over the matter.

“This has been our follow (when coping with points like this)… and based mostly on the assertion issued by Wisma Putra yesterday, the following step contains sending a protest observe,” he was quoted as saying by the official Bernama information company.

The Malaysian International Ministry stated on Wednesday that Malaysia doesn’t recognise China’s claims within the South China Sea, as outlined within the “China Customary Map Version 2023,” which additionally encompasses Malaysia’s maritime areas.

The map holds no binding authority over Malaysia, it stated in an announcement.

The Vietnamese authorities additionally criticised China’s newest provocation.

Vietnam strongly reiterates its constant stance on the sovereignty over Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly), and resolutely rejects any maritime claims of China which might be based mostly on the “nine-dash line” within the East Sea, spokeswoman of the Vietnamese Ministry of International Affairs Pham Thu Cling stated on Thursday.

Cling made the assertion whereas answering reporters’ questions relating to Vietnam’s response to China’s launch of the so-called “customary map 2023” which covers Vietnam’s Hoang Sa and Truong Sa, the official Vietnam Information Company reported.

The issuance of the map in addition to China’s “nine-dash line” declare present a violation of Vietnam’s sovereignty over Hoang Sa and Truong Sa, in addition to Vietnam’s sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction over its waters as stipulated within the 1982 United Nations Conference on the Regulation of the Sea (1982 UNCLOS), she confused.

Subsequently, the sovereignty and maritime claims based mostly on the “nine-dash line” as mirrored within the map are void and violate worldwide regulation, significantly the 1982 UNCLOS, the spokeswoman stated.

Taiwan’s Ministry of International Affairs on Wednesday rebuked China’s new “customary map” by saying Taiwan has by no means been dominated by the Folks’s Republic of China (PRC).

International ministry spokesperson Jeff Liu advised Taiwan Information that “Taiwan, the Republic of China, is a sovereign and impartial nation that isn’t subordinate to the Folks’s Republic of China. The Folks’s Republic of China has by no means dominated Taiwan. These are universally recognised information and the established order within the worldwide neighborhood.” In the meantime, China’s international ministry indicated it was not budging on the map challenge.

“China’s place on the South China Sea is constant and clear. The competent authorities of China routinely publish customary maps of varied sorts yearly, which goals to make customary maps out there to all sectors of society and lift public consciousness of the standardised use of maps.

“We hope events involved can view it in an goal and rational mild,” International Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin stated in response to a query on Thursday when sought his touch upon the protests from nations like India, Malaysia in addition to the Philippines towards this new Chinese language map. 

(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)