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China Updates Disputed Sea Maps to Get Back at Vietnam

Ralph Jennings

   TAIPEI, TAIWAN - China has renamed scores of islets and underwater
   landforms in the South China Sea, a move some analysts say is intended
   to push back against Vietnamese naval incursions in the disputed
   waterway.

   Two Chinese government ministries have renamed 25 islets and 55
   submerged features in the South China Sea that stretches from Hong Kong
   to Borneo, the country's Civil Affairs Ministry said on its website
   April 19.

   This act, though it doesn't automatically give China more legal
   sovereignty than five other Asian governments with claims to the
   resource-rich sea, helps repel Vietnam after a string of upsets that
   culminated in February, analysts believe.

   That month, 311 Vietnamese vessels "intruded" into internal waters,
   territorial seas, and exclusive economic zones of three southern
   Chinese provinces, a Peking University monitoring service said. China
   was trying then to control the world's first coronavirus outbreak in
   Hubei province and reported recovery in March.

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