China Seeks to Play Down Passport Row
China on Wednesday sought to play down a regional backlash sparked by maps printed on new Chinese passports that its neighbors consider provocative, one day after the U.S. State Department said it would raise the issue with Beijing.
The dispute isn't likely to cause major damage to relations between China and other Asian nations, according to regional officials and experts. But it offers a glimpse into the tensions sparked by China's growing heft both economically and military, as well as its increasingly assertive attitude toward territories it has long claimed as its own.
At a regular media briefing on Wednesday, China Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said China began issuing new passports this past spring to introduce new technology, including smart chips, also used by other countries. "The picture on the passport should not be overinterpreted," he said. "China is ready to maintain communication with relevant countries and promote the sound development of personnel exchanges."
Mr. Hong's comments follow those by U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland on Tuesday, who said the U.S. would bring up the matter with Beijing, following protests from India, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan. The map "is causing tension and anxiety between and among the states in the South China Sea," she said. She added that China has the right to design the passport as it wishes but "that's a different matter tha! n whether it's politically smart or helpful to be taking steps that antagonize countries that we want to see a negotiation happen with."
The map depicts waters and islands claimed by Vietnam and the Philippines as part of China, as well as two inland areas also claimed by India. The passport also has images from Taiwan, an island that China considers its sovereign territory, sparking a protest from Taipei.
The dispute has caused inconveniences for some Chinese travelers in the region as governments such as those in Vietnam and the Philippines look for alternatives to stamping the new Chinese passports. David Li, who works in the shoe manufacturing industry, said customs officials in Vietnam initially refused to stamp his passport on his Nov. 19 arrival. After a half-hour, he said, customs officials gave him a separate sheet of paper that they stamped instead. "I think the government should be actively negotiating with related countries," he said. "Otherwise, people who need to go abroad will eventually face the impact."
Said a user of Sina Corp.'s popular Twitter-like Weibo Chinese microblogging service, who said Vietnamese customs kept her waiting for two hours, "I come here to spend money, and if Vietnam declines me, they will lose money. "
In a statement, Vietnam's Foreign Ministry said it protested to the Chinese embassy in Hanoi and asked Chinese officials "to repeal the wrongful contents" in the new passport.
India hasn't officially complained to China about the issue, said Syed Akbaruddin, a spokesman at India's foreign ministry. Instead, the Indian embassy in Beijing has responded by issuing visas to Chinese nationals stamped with maps that show the two areas claimed on the map by China as falling within India's borders.
"Every country has a right to determination on its boundaries," Mr. Akbaruddin said. "The Chinese side have expressed its view on where its boundary lies. We have our own opinion."
The dispute is part of broader regional jostling ! over clai! ms to areas that, in the case of the South China Sea, could be potentially resource rich. The territorial claims were a major issue at a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, last week, where U.S. President Barack Obama backed an effort by many in the group to negotiate a regionwide agreement with China. China has said the dispute should be settled one-on-one just with the nations involved.
"While it is far-fetched to consider the new Chinese passports as an act of provocation, it is damaging to Asean-China ties, and will further inflame the already tense situation in the South China Sea," said Tang Siew Mun, director, foreign policy and security studies at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies, a Malaysian think tank. "If anything, this shows Beijing's lack of regard for Asean sensitivities."
Others were quick to play down the impact of this episode. In the Philippines, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said he is confident the dispute won't significantly affect relations among businessmen. "Relations among nations are multidimensional. While there's a territorial dispute, business relations, people to people, cultural relations are still doing well," he said. The Philippines' exports to China totaled $ 3.4 billion during the first six months of the year, while imports hit $ 3.2 billion.
Still, the Philippines's Department of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday it would no longer stamp its visas on the Chinese passport, and would instead stamp a separate visa form.
Shen Dingli, a professor of international relations at China's Fudan University, said the map is counterproductive to China's position that the South China Sea has historically been part of its territory. "The point is not to stress the differences but to see the common ground," he said.
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