Ancient Chinese maps

The Philippine government, through the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), has reiterated its displeasure over the reported plan of China to fortify its claims over the disputed Spratlys. The Chinese insists its territorial ownership over Sansha City, a name it calls the group of islands, islets, shoals, reefs and atolls in the disputed Spratlys in South China Sea.

DFA Secretary Alberto del Rosario reportedly has asked the Philippine Embassy in Beijing to check from official channels on the reported $1.6-billion investment plan of China to develop Sansha City.

Actually, Sansha City was only created last July 24 on Yongxing Island to administer the Xisha (Paracels), Zhongsha (Macclesfield Bank) and Nansha (Spratlys) islands and their surrounding waters in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea). The Philippines promptly filed a diplomatic protest over this action taken by China.

For us Filipinos, those islets, islands, shoals, reefs and atolls are located within the 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) from the shores of the Philippines and are therefore part of our country’s territorial waters. Thus, we refer to this part of the country as West Philippine Sea. We call the biggest land area of the disputed territories as the Kalayaan Island Group (KIG) located just across Palawan.

As far as we’re concerned, our legitimate claims are based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) that attests that these disputed territorial areas belong to the Philippines.

DFA official spokesperson Undersecretary Raul Hernandez reportedly issued this reiteration of the Philippine stand on the matter last Wednesday. He was actually reacting to renewed reports about China’s latest plan to develop the disputed areas.

Bloomberg quoted the 21st Century Business Herald report that China had approved the plan to invest at least $1.6 billion to build an airport, pier, and other infrastructure on these islands covered by territorial disputes. Further quoting the 21st Century Herald, Bloomberg also said the construction of some facilities has started and that funds for Sansha would also be spent on marine law enforcement and ocean fisheries. 

“China’s action to fortify Sansha City is an attempt to reinforce its excessive nine-dash claim which is a violation of international law, especially the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea,” Hernandez pointed out.

Hernandez refers to the U-shaped or nine-dash map that both Beijing and the Republic of China (Taiwan) use to back up their claims over all islets, islands, atolls and reefs found within the enclosed nine-dotted demarcation line.

The nine-dotted-line has been officially protested by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia immediately after China submitted to the UN on May 7, 2009 a map including the nine-dotted line territorial claim in the South China Sea. Indonesia also registered its protest, even though it did not have a claim on the South China Sea.

But China is undeterred. Official statements from Beijing insist that it has ancient historical maps to back up its claims on these territories that could stand scrutiny even before international courts.

This reminded me of the very old Chinese maps we saw on display at the National Palace Museum of Taiwan during the familiarization tour sponsored by AirAsia Philippines in its inaugural Clark-Taipei flight last Dec. 16. The museum has one section for this: “Mapping the Imperial Realm, an Exhibition of Historical Maps.”

Located up on Zhishan Road, the museum houses collections of 690,000 Chinese artifacts and artworks originally from the Forbidden City in Beijing that were “stolen” following Taiwan’s breakaway from mainland China in 1949.

I even brought home a copy of the Chinese maps’ brochure, with English translation, distributed for free at the museum. Let me share with you important excerpts to understand where China is coming from on its claims that have been causing dispute with its neighboring countries over overlapping territorial waters in South China Sea.

“Maps originated in pictorial depiction, which as visual representation was used in the remote time to convey messages or to pursue artistic expressions. From the Neolithic cave walls of potteries many man-made images have remained to show such early mental pursuits and serve as records of actual lives. Later during the development of graphical imitation skills, some came to use simple lines to depict what they perceived of their geographical surroundings, gradually lending a practical aspect to the art and concept of pictorial representation, and eventually giving rise to the art of mapmaking.

“Despite practical purposes, maps in the process of development were also full of rich cultural elements. Hence two main branches emerged: one stressed lines for spatial representation of the real world, and the other complemented the function with aesthetic appeal. The same general trend existed in both China and the West, though in different ways. The latter tended to embellish their artistic-oriented maps with dazzling ornamental patterns, while the former emphasized brushwork, composition, and atmosphere, rendering their maps more in the sense of paintings.

“As Cordell D. K. Yee points out in his History of Chinese Cartography, poetry, calligraphy, and painting, all three are indispensable to the making of an ancient Chinese map. Through the fusion of image and text, maps inform as well as represent. They are not only pragmatic guides to use but also beautiful works of art to look at.

“Indeed, the makers of Chinese ancient maps in essence were no different from art painters, and many Chinese art painters at time made maps, into which they constructed their interpretation of space and expressed their feelings toward natural environments, political boundaries, and social customs. Map reading therefore is not simply to look for ‘information about a geographical space.’ There are more profound meanings to be read, between the ‘lines,’ about the times of their making. It should be a dialogue across space and time between the map-reader and the mapmaker.”

Now we know why China has its own versions of its maps different from us and the rest of the world.