Chinese Map to Include Disputed Territories

China is to publish a new map showing the Senkaku or Diaoyu islands and other disputed areas in the East and South China seas as Chinese territory.

Beijing already started issuing passports in November last year with a map that includes the South China Sea.

The state-run Xinhua news agency on Sunday said the National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation will publish the new map at the end of this month showing around 130 disputed territories.

The new map will detail all the territories in the same proportion as the mainland, including the Spratly Islands, the Paracel Islands, the Pratas Islands, the Macclesfield Bank, and the Scarborough Shoal, which are variously disputed between China, Vietnam and the Philippines in the South China Sea, and the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea, which Japan also claims.

Prior maps listed the disputed islets in a separate illustration in the lower right hand corner and did not depict them in detail.

Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is mulling a new Asia policy aimed at keeping China in check, to be unveiled during his upcoming visit to Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia. The aim is to cooperate with Asian countries that "share the same values" as Japan in a range of areas from security and economy to energy.