This doesn't pass the laugh test:
China said Wednesday that other countries should not read too much into the placement of a new map on its passports that show Beijing staking its claim on the entire South China Sea, Taiwan and the regions of contention between India and China.
"The aim of China's new electronic passports is to strengthen its technological abilities and make it convenient for Chinese citizens to enter or leave the country," China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a daily news briefing, Reuters reported.
What technological issues are involved in map printing? Are Chinese citizens who enter parts of India really still in China?
Don't read too much into this? Will China next year put France on their passports to further strengthen their technological abilities? Russia's Far East? Vietnam's mainland? North Korea? It's all a big nothingburger?
Of course it is something. Something big. Something this big:
Police in the southern Chinese island province of Hainan will board and search ships which enter into what China considers its territorial waters in the disputed South China Sea, state media said on Thursday, a move likely to add to tensions.
The South China Sea is Asia's biggest potential military trouble spot with several Asian countries claiming sovereignty.
New rules, which come into effect on January 1, will allow Hainan police to board and seize control of foreign ships which "illegally enter" Chinese waters and order them to change course or stop sailing, the official China Daily reported.
Now that is strengthening technological abilities--technological abilities to board ships in international waters.
Heck, let's put our former treaty ports in China on our passports. You know, to strengthen our technological abilities. Nothing wrong with that, right? The Chinese would be silly to read too much into that.
Or let's stamp China's map without Tibet onto the passports of any Chinese citizen traveling to America. To make it more convenient to enter or leave their country, of course.
China says this map design is no big deal. But I'll believe my lying eyes rather than their soothing words when I see them showing a rather expansive China on their official documents.
