With the release of the new standard map of the People’s Republic of China, China has caused great irritation among neighboring countries.

This is because the map issued by the Ministry of Natural Resources shows, among other things, all the states of India and the coastal waters of Malaysia as China’s national territory. This map is intended for use in universities and schools or by publishers – therefore this map is definitely the official map series.

This new card is an insult to India in particular. At the Brics Summit in Johannesburg, Chief of State Xi Jinping spoke with Prime Minister Narendra Modi about ways to deescalate tensions that have existed for decades along the approximately 3,500-kilometer Line of Actual Control (LAC) over rough terrain. from the Himalayas can. Many interpret this as a thaw. But now a new map shows the state of Arunachal Pradesh, long claimed by China, as its own territory with the new name “Zangnan” (藏南), i.e. southern Tibet. The mountainous region of Aksai Chin in western Tibet also distinguishes them as part of China. The territory was conquered by China in a border war in 1962, but India has never relinquished its claims.

It was also revealed on Thursday that Xi is unlikely to attend the G20 summit in India, as this is yet another humiliation. Satellite images from the Himalayas also show that China is building several bunkers on the LAC side to protect against Indian attack. 2020 was the last time there was fighting near Aksai Chin in the LAC in which two dozen people died, and in 2022 troops from both sides attacked each other with sticks and other equipment.

Neighboring countries reacted angrily to the card. “Unreasonable claims are not making someone else’s territory your own,” said Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. “Simply showing a map of India doesn’t mean anything.”

The Philippines, Malaysia and Taiwan also rejected the card. Malaysia has launched a diplomatic protest against China over a map showing parts of the country’s exclusive economic zone in Borneo’s Sabah and Sarawak provinces as belonging to China. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin on Thursday calmly urged all stakeholders to view the map in an “objective and rational” way. Whatever that means: Beijing shouldn’t be friends with the map set.

*The image is created with the help of a machine. A text-to-image model is used for this. Model selection, model instruction development and final image editing: Art Director Nicolas Bruckmann.