Chinese scientists continue to introduce China’s cow tongue line in the East Sea by showing it in a map that appears in an article published recently by Climatic Change, an international scientific magazine based in the US.

The article was written by a group of Chinese authors led by Xuemei Shao from the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources.

According to the Chinese government, the entire area within the cow’s tongue or the “U-shaped line” or the “9-dashed line”, including the islands, reefs and the bordering water, belongs to the sovereignty and jurisdiction of China based on history.

After the magazine published the article, a number of Vietnamese scholars sent their letters to the magazine complaining that the cow’s tongue line is legally groundless, since neither international organizations nor ASEAN countries recognize it.

Michael Oppenheimer, the magazine’s chief-in-editor, transferred the complaint to Xuemei Shao, who later replied, “We will not correct the diagram. We inserted the small map in the diagram at the request of the Chinese Government.”

Shao also suggested that Dr. Bui Quang Hien, one of the Vietnamese scientists who objected to the line, should contact the Chinese government about the issue.

Shao’s reply means that the article’s authors had followed the Chinese Government’s order to show the cow’s tongue line, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Tuan from the Garvan Institute in Australia, said.

Through Shao’s statement, Vietnamese scientists have for the first time got evidence of the Chinese government’s direct involvement in the dissemination of the line through international magazines, Tuan said.

According to a reliable source, the Chinese Government in 2007 ordered that all Chinese maps must include the cow’s tongue line, Tuan added.

This is not the first time that the line has been shown in an article published by an international scientific magazine.

In its Editor’s Note on September 30, the Science Journal released its opinion about the article “China’s demographic history and future challenges” published in late July, in which a map of the East Sea showing the cow’s tongue line was included.

“Science does not have a position with regard to jurisdictional claims in the area of water included in the map. We are reviewing our map acceptance procedures to ensure that in the future Science does not appear to endorse or take a position on territorial/jurisdictional disputes,” the Editor’s Note said.

In June 2011, the Journal of Waste Management has published a correction after it published an article on April 19, 2011 that included a map showing the cow’s tongue line.

The journal’s editor-in-chief, Prof. Dr Raffaello Cossu, from Italy’s Padova University, admitted the journal’s shortcomings after Vietnamese scientists objected to the map, which was used as an illustration for an article about solid wastes.

In late May 2011, Vice Chairman of the National Border Committee of Vietnam Nguyen Duy Chien was quoted by the website of the Vietnamese Embassy in the United States as saying: “China’s nine-dotted line in the East Sea, aka “the cow’s tongue”, is legally groundless and in contrary to the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea to which China is a party.

Tuoitre