Chinese authorities seize maps 'violating' one-China principle

BEIJING: Chinese authorities recently seized a batch of "illegal maps" suspected of violating the one-China principle in Southwest China's Chongqing city, state media reported. 24 sets of problematic maps, which were scheduled to be exported to Europe, were detected by Yuzhou Customs affiliated with Chongqing Customs, the state media outlet Global Times reported. Subsequently, the officers decided to implement a temporary seizure.

The General Administration of Customs of China (GACC) said that further investigation is underway into the issue. The One China principle is the position held by Beijing that there is only one sovereign state under the name China, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) serving as the sole legitimate government of that China, and Taiwan is a part of China.

The GT report said that the authorities found that there were errors in the indication of the Taiwan region and the omission of important islands including the Diaoyu Islands and Chiwei Yu in the problematic maps. According to the GACC, these omissions were in violation of the Map Management Regulations and other relevant provisions, and are suspected of infringing upon China's sovereignty and territorial integrity and violating the one-China principle.

In recent years, China has come down heavily on some international companies that they found using "problematic" maps, threatening China's sovereignty and territorial integrity. The Chinese authorities said that a correct national map is a symbol of territorial integrity and national sovereignty.

The state media outlet said map-related businesses should voluntarily provide the Customs with relevant approval documents for map products, for carrying out inspections.