Institute donates 80 maps refuting China’s claims
Saturday, October 13, 2012, 11:06 GMT+7
The Institute for Vietnamese Culture & Education (IVCE) in the US has donated 80 maps of China that do not feature Truong Sa (Spratly) and Hoang Sa (Paracel) Islands to an institute in Vietnam’s central city of Da Nang.
Tran Thang, chairman of IVCE, yesterday announced the decision to present his collection of 80 maps of China to the Da Nang Institute for Socio-Economic Development, which has been studying the Spratly and Paracel Islands.
“I would like to share with you my collection of 80 maps of the 1626 – 1980 period which were published in England, America, France, Germany, Canada, Scotland, India, etc… The dimension of maps varies from 8” x 10” (20cm x 25cm) to 24” x 30” (60cm x 75cm)”, Thang said.
70 maps indicate that the southernmost border of China is Hainan Island, and 10 maps indicate that Paracel belongs to Vietnam, Thang said on IVCE’s website at http://www.ivce.org.
“As Vietnamese, we all have the obligation to preserve our country as well as to take part in shaping the future of Vietnamese society.”
Tran Thang, chairman of the US-based Institute for Vietnamese Culture & Education (Photo: IVCE)
Thang said he has compiled the maps after reading a Tuoi Tre article that mentioned a map that was published by China but did not include Truong Sa and Hoang Sa as parts of its territories.
The cost of map collection was paid by Thang and his friends in the US and other countries. Thanh also said that during his map collecting, he found two Postal Atlas Map of China books which were published by Directorate General of Posts, Ministry of Transportation – Republic of China in 1919 and 1933 and one Atlas of the Chinese Empire book which was published by China Inland Mission in 1909.
“All these three books do not list Paracel and Spratly in the map and index page,” he said.
Below are some of the 80 maps of China collected by Thang:
Jacob Van Meurs. Dutch (1665)
Prevost Bellin. Germany (1747)
Abraham Rees, Longman Hurst Rees & Orme Paternoster Row, London, England (1808)
Thomson’s New General Atlas. Edinburgh, Scotland (1815)
A map of China in the Postal Atlas Map of China book published by Directorate General of Posts, Ministry of Transportation – Republic of China in 1933
