Vietnam yesterday protested against a Chinese agency which publishes an online world map that illustrates Vietnamese territorial waters in the East Sea as part of China.

The map of the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping of China claims Vietnam's Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagos belong to China territory, said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman of Vietnam, Nguyen Phuong Nga.

"The act by China's State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping seriously violates Vietnam's sovereignty over the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagos, its sovereign right and national jurisdiction right over the continental shelf and the 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone," Nga said.

It also violates the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and runs counter to the spirit of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) signed between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China, she added.

Vietnam wanted China to promptly remove data that violate Vietnam's sovereignty, and observe the common views of the two countries' leaders on maintaining peace and stability in the East Sea, the spokeswoman said.