Sunday 25 November 2012

New Chinese Passports Rile Asian Neighbors .

                      It  is  the   Notice   from   China   to   the   U.S.   that  ,  China   can  not   accept  pushing  the   ASEAN   countries  to   adopt   a  code  of  conduct   to    resolve  the   conflicts  of   the   disputed   islands
in  South   China   Sea  or   East  China  Sea  as  the  regional   issues  .
                 It   tries   to   clear  the   way  for  finding  out  the   solution  in  peaceful  mean  between  China   and  the  neighbouring  countries   which   have  the   relation  of   the  disputed  islands .

Whenever a country issues new passports, someone almost always complains about the new design. But China's latest edition of travel logs is drawing formal criticism from countries across Asia.

The passports feature a map of China that includes areas of the South China Sea claimed by other countries, as well as territory claimed by India.

Taiwan's government objected to the passports Friday, following similar protests by the Philippines and Vietnam. Officials at the Indian Embassy in Beijing are protesting in their own way, stamping Chinese visas with a map showing the disputed territory belonging to India, according to The Press Trust of India.

John Blaxland, with the Strategic and Defense Studies Center at Australian National University, called China's move "pretty clever."

"It basically forces everyone who's a claimant of South China Sea elements to acknowledge it by stamping it," he said.

As China's military and economic influence has grown throughout the world, Beijing has become more brazen in its claim to territories believed to be rich with oil and natural gas across the Asia-Pacific.

China’s Foreign Ministry said the “nine-dash” map of the sea printed in the new passports wasn’t targeted at any specific countries.

Blaxland described China’s move as part of a "long game" being played by a new generation of leaders who will steer the country for the next 10 years.

"We've just seen a major transition in China … They can act deliberately and slowly, and slowly get their way. There's really not very much anyone is seriously prepared to do about it," he said.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations discussed the territorial disputes at a summit in Cambodia earlier this week but failed to achieve a united stand on how the 10 member countries should respond to China.

Carl Thayer, a professor emeritus at the University of New South Wales, said the map in China’s new passports may partly be in response to Vietnam’s passage earlier this year of a Law of the Sea. The law asserts Vietnam’s sovereignty over the Spratly and Paracel islands, which are claimed by both Hanoi and Beijing.

“It's just finding one more way of turning the screw that China has jurisdiction,” Thayer said.

Although Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines have been most vocal in their opposition to China’s moves, Brunei and Malaysia also have rival claims in the South China Sea, and Japan is embroiled in its own dispute over islands in the East China Sea. All the territorial spats have raised concerns about a potential maritime conflict, prompting the United States to wade into the controversy.

The Obama administration says it is not taking sides but is pushing for the countries to adopt a code of conduct, which China opposes.

Blaxley said the United States wants to secure its freedom of navigation in the region.
 

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