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Opinion | Beijing and Taipei are united – in their South China Sea claims
- Washington’s recent assertion that Beijing’s territorial claims are unlawful are belied not only by history, but by an atlas it once embraced
- The claims of mainland China and Taiwan share their origin, but the US has never challenged those of the self-governed island
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I am lucky enough to count a number of former American ambassadors to China as friends, some of whom I have known for decades. Several years back, one gave me an exquisite Christmas gift – a pocket-sized World Atlas with a black leather cover, gilded with the emblem of the United States in the centre and the ambassador’s name and title in beautiful italic calligraphy at the bottom (Exhibit 1). Inside the cover is the ambassador’s handwriting:
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“To my old and dear friend Weijian and family, with warm best wishes for a very merry Christmas and a happy and healthy new year!”
He signed his nickname, as he is known to friends.
I only realised the significance of this atlas in 2020, when on July 14 of that year, Mike Pompeo, then US Secretary of State, announced that most of China’s sovereign claims in the South China Sea were “unlawful”, thereby reversing a long-standing US position of neutrality on competing claims in the region.
My World Atlas from the US ambassador is physical evidence of how until recently, the US had not disputed or objected to China’s claims. It includes a map of the South China Sea, showing clearly the “nine-dash line” which delineates China’s sovereign claim (Exhibit 2).
If Washington had objected to this line, the US embassy in Beijing would not have procured and custom-encased this atlas for the ambassador to give out as a gift.
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