A Change of Guard

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Thursday 3 July 2014

New PRC Map Is China’s Latest Move in South China Sea Dispute

COMMENTARY BY

Aggressive mapping is nothing new for China. With the release of a new 10-dash map last week, however, China has reinforced its already unreasonable claims on areas in the South China Sea.
China’s original nine-dash line map shows its claim to 90 percent of the South China Sea, encompassing the hotly contested Spratly and Paracel Islands. Declared as inconsistent with international law by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Danny Russel, Vietnam, the Philippines, and three other countries have disputed China’s claims. The People’s Republic of China (PRC), however, has pushed aside these criticisms in pursuit of its expansionist policy.
In a mid-May affirmation of this claim, China sent its largest oil rig to survey territory only 20 miles off the Paracel Islands, sparking violent anti-Chinese protests in Vietnam. The PRC’s communist neighbor, who claims the rig is within Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone, has called for stabilization of the situation, but no significant progress has been made.
In a map released last week by the Hunan Map Publishing House, China has expanded on their original nine-dash claim. Consistent with a government Sinomap Press map released last year, a tenth dash makes clear that Taiwan is within China’s sovereign territory. While China’s claiming Taiwan is not new policy, the new map’s shape is significant. Uncharacteristically, the map is vertical. It shows the South China Sea on the same scale as mainland China, presumably emphasizing the legitimacy of their oceanic stake.
China’s map orientation not only sends a strong message to the rest of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the United States, but it also fuels domestic support for future territorial confrontations. The latter is perhaps most concerning, as it contributes to the nationalistic pressure for aggressiveness along the periphery.

It seems that China is not deterred by diplomatic criticism. China’s testing of international resolve has become commonplace, and the international community has yet to pass those tests. The new 10-dash line is the latest evidence of that. China’s demonstrated boldness may pave the way for even more aggressive behavior, something the rest of ASEAN and the U.S. needs to plan for.
D. Gerard Gayou is currently a member of the Young Leaders Program at The Heritage Foundation. For more information on interning at Heritage, please click here.

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