Philippines protests territorial maps in Chinese passports

China’s new passports show a map including its claim to almost all the South China Sea – provoking protests by the Philippines Thursday and Vietnam – but leaving out islands bitterly disputed with Japan.

Beijing has been engaged in a simmering row with its southern neighbours over its claim to vast swathes of the South China Sea, with Chinese maps having a “nine-dash line” that runs almost to the Philippine and Malaysian coasts.

The row saw a maritime stand-off with Manila earlier this year and took centre stage at the East Asia Summit, attended by US President Barack Obama, earlier this week.

China and Japan have also engaged in furious exchanges over East China Sea islands administered by Tokyo, which calls them Senkaku, and claimed by Beijing as Diaoyu. China saw mass protests over them nationwide in September.

The latest front in the South China Sea dispute is travel documents issued by Beijing, with its new computer-chipped passport, or e-Passport, showing various islands as Chinese territory, including the Paracels and Spratlys.

But the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands are absent, Tokyo said.