Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Nga addressed the issue in response to reporters’ questions about China’s State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping online world map which shows the nine-segment claim line encroaching on Vietnam’s Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagos and its territorial waters.

“This 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 rights and national jurisdiction 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 ran 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 wants China to immediately remove data that violates Vietnam’s sovereignty, sovereign right and jurisdiction rights over Vietnam’s Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagos and territorial waters, and observe the mutual desire of both countries’ leaders to maintain peace and stability in the East Sea, the spokeswoman said.