“The Chinese State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping officially providing the ‘Map World’ online service, with a map in which the nine-segment claim line on the East Sea is present, violates Vietnam’s sovereignty over Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagos,” said Nguyen Phuong Nga, a spokesperson for Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry, in response to reporters’ questions on Vietnam’s reaction.

The act also violates sovereignty right and jurisdiction over the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf of Vietnam and East Sea-rim countries and completely runs counter to regulations of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the spirit of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), she said on Jan. 26.

”Vietnam protests against China’s act and asks China to immediately remove incorrect information on the above-mentioned map,” she said.