By Harry Kazianis
With the publication of its latest map, China has declared “mapware” in the Western Pacific.
Last week, Beijing made another move to bolster its South China Sea claims that is sure to turn heads. And no, it was not the placement of another oil rig off of Vietnam’s coast. This one is much more slick and designed to slowly advance China’s real strategy to gain control of the area: to win the perception game at home and abroad.
So what did China do this time? It published a new official map of its territory. So the first thing you are probably asking — and rightly so — is how could something so mundane actually be news? In this new map Beijing essentially claims as sovereign territory almost all the disputed area of the South China Sea (and parts of territory it has in dispute with India). China’s new strategy seems quite clear and mimics one of the classic scenes of that that quintessential American sales scam movie Boiler Room: act as if (warning, the language is of adult nature) you are the sovereign ruler of a territory — by patrolling it, by claiming and locating natural resources and issuing maps showing you control it — and you slowly over time beat down other claimants who can’t match your actions.
Using such a strategy, or what I call “Mapfare,” is certainly not new for Beijing. Veteran Diplomat readers will recall the controversy in late 2012 when Beijing issued new passports with map photos that caused quite a stir in the region.
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