In July of 2016, an arbitration tribunal constituted under Annex VII to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea ruled that China has no legal basis to claim “historic rights” over the South China Sea, in a case brought forward by the Philippines. The tribunal judged that there was no evidence that China had historically exercised exclusive control over the waters or resources within the delineation. The UN’s ruling was rejected by the People’s Republic of China government.

In 2017 China quietly instituted a law that forbade map manufacturers within China from producing alternate versions of the map, even if the maps were being requested to be made for purchasers outside of China. Because of China’s low cost of manufacturing, these maps and globes of the world depicting China’s non-recognized land claims have been sold internationally.

In order to ensure China’s interests, inspectors are regularly sent to map-making facilities to ensure that maps and globes are in conformance with Chinese law. Map makers not following China’s map making standards are fined, and threatened to be shut down. This has resulted in Chinese map makers enforcing that foreign buyers either change to the Chinese official map standards, or seek manufacturing elsewhere, likely at a higher cost. These practices are even being implemented on historical maps made before the land claim, such as on 18th century and medieval era maps, and maps designed for Children for use in educational settings, including in textbooks.

In China, the people do not have the Freedom of Press. With the People’s Republic of China enacting political control over what gets manufactured, they are in essence waging international educational warfare against those not aware of the disputed claims. This should be considered as hostile actions by the international community. If these practices go unchecked by the international community, generations will be brought up using incorrect map standards, confusing the validity of such claims.

What can be done to combat these inaccuracies?