China Seeks to Calm Anger Over Passports
ASIA NEWS - The Wallstreet Journal
Updated November 28, 2012, 12:27 p.m. ET
By CRIS LARANO in Manila and NGUYEN PHAM MUOI and NGUYEN ANH THU in Hanoi
A map printed in new Chinese passports depicts disputed islands in the South China Sea, Taiwan and areas claimed by India as part of China. The WSJ's Carlos Tejada talks about how China's passport design is fueling the geopolitical fire in Asia.
China appeared to seek to assuage angry neighbors over a passport design they consider provocative,
one day after the U.S. said it would raise the issue with Beijing.
A map printed in new Chinese passports depicts as part of China waters and islands also claimed by Vietnam and the Philippines 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.
The inclusion of the map in the passports has prompted protests around the region and several governments have come up alternative entry forms to avoid stamping the new Chinese passports or issue visas with their own maps for Chinese visitors.
At a regular media briefing on Wednesday, China Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei sought to play down the map's significance. "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."
Shown are documents given to Chinese passport holders at the international airport in Hanoi so Vietnamese customs workers won't have to stamp the politically sensitive Chinese passports.
State media said China began issuing new passports this past spring to introduce new technology, including smart chips. However, the issue surrounding the map has drawn attention only in the last week after protests from the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan.
Mr. Hong's comments follow those Tuesday by U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, who said the U.S. would bring up the matter with Beijing. 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 than whether it is politically smart or helpful to be taking steps that antagonize countries that we want to see a negotiation happen with."
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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.
China's leadership has to walk a fine line on issues pertaining to its territorial disputes, as it seeks to avoid disrupting economic ties while assuaging nationalist pressures at home. Protests in September related to a dispute with Japan over islands in the East China Sea that both countries claim appeared at times to spin out of control, prompting official calls for calm even as leaders continued to lash out against Tokyo's stance on the islands.
The recent passport dispute has caused inconveniences for some Chinese travelers in the region.
Shown are documents given to Chinese passport holders at the international airport in
Hanoi so Vietnamese customs workers won't have to stamp the politically sensitive Chinese passports.
In a group of
20 Chinese tourists who arrived in Hanoi from Beijing on Wednesday, four had the new passports. One of them said she didn't realize that her passport, issued in July, had the new map, which she said was so tiny and blurry it was hard to make out what it depicted.
"We entered the Vietnamese immigration gate and didn't get a visa stamped on the passport, but instead, we received a separate sheet of paper called a tourist permit that is valid for traveling in Vietnam," she said.
David Li, who works in the shoe-manufacturing industry, had a similar experience when arriving in Vietnam on Nov. 19 as customs official initially refused to stamp his passport and eventually stamped a separate sheet of paper 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."
A user of Sina Corp.'s SINA -1.14% popular Twitter-like Weibo Chinese microblogging service said Vietnamese customs kept her waiting for two hours. "I come here to spend money, and if Vietnam declines me, they will lose money," the user said.
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 is issuing visas to Chinese nationals stamped with maps that show the two inland areas in dispute 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 claims to areas that, in the case of the South China Sea, could be potentially rich in resources. 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 of the group's members to negotiate a regionwide agreement with China. China has said the dispute should be settled with each nation involved one-on-one.
"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 of 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 the passport episode. In the Philippines, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said he is confident the dispute won't significantly affect business relationships. "Relations among nations are multidimensional. While there's a territorial dispute, business relations, people to people, cultural relations are still doing well," he said.
Nevertheless, 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.
—Vibhuti Agarwal in New Delhi and Kersten Zhang and Wayne Ma in Beijing contributed to this article.
