A Vietnamese distributor of Chinese automobiles has been selling cars whose navigation app contains a map with the illicit ‘nine-dash line.’

Kylin-GX668, a company in the northern city of Hai Phong which distributes automobiles of such Chinese manufacturers as Haima, Geely, Zotye, and Baic, admitted on Saturday that the ‘nine-dash line’ map is used in the vehicles’ default navigation app.

The default app, however, is not operational in Vietnam as due to a lack of data and differences in the two countries’ satellite navigation systems.

Vietnamese buyers of these Chinese cars often install Vietmap or Google Maps apps on their vehicles.

Kylin company stated that its carelessness had resulted in this error and promised to remove the default navigation app from all of its automobiles in the future.

An executive of the firm confirmed to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Saturday night that the board of directors would convene an urgent meeting to work out a proper solution.

The issue was recently brought to public attention after several media outlets reported that the Zotye T600 automobiles sold by Kylin were using the illegal map.

The ‘nine-dash line’ is an arbitrary demarcation line used on Chinese maps to illustrate Beijing’s illegal and unilaterally declared claims to vast expanses of the East Vietnam Sea, including large swathes of Vietnam’s Continental Shelf.

Vietnamese tour operator Saigontourist was recently slapped with a VND50 million (US$2,200) fine for issuing pamphlets that contain a map depicting the invalid ‘nine-dash line.’

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