China shreds 30,000 maps depicting Arunachal as part of India, says report

China has shredded around 30,000 maps depicting Arunachal Pradesh as part of India and Taiwan as an independent country, a news website reported.

“A total of 803 boxes of the 28,908 wrong maps were seized and destroyed, the largest amount to be disposed of in recent years,” the report said.

The crackdown came after the custom officials of Qingdao in China's Shandong province seized 28,908 world maps kept in 800 boxes. The maps were taken to a secret location in Qingdao and shredded on the orders of the natural resources and planning bureau, the report said.


Global Times said "the maps were produced by a company in East China's Anhui Province and were on the way to being exported to an unspecified foreign country".

“If there are ‘problematic maps’ which harm national sovereignty and territorial integrity, especially foreign printed products or products destined for import or export, they will be intentionally used or speculated on by the international community,” Ma Wei, from the Department of Geographical Information Management at the Ministry of Natural Resources, was quoted as saying

China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of the Tibet Autonomous Region. It also claims that Taiwan is a part of China. Only 17 countries recognise Taiwan's taiwan sovereignty and have diplomatic ties with it.

"If the wrong maps were circulated inside the country and abroad, it would have caused great harm to China's territorial integrity in the long run," Global Times quoted Liu Wenzong, professor from the department of International Law of China Foreign Affairs University, as saying.