Shenzhen customs retrieves problematic maps from overseas

Customs authorities in Shenzhen, south China’s Guangdong Province, have retrieved more than 260,000 problematic maps from the Netherlands.

Shenzhen Customs said Monday they have detained four suspects in connection to illegally exporting the problematic maps.

In September last year, customs authorities found more than 41,000 maps suspected of infringing China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity during customs inspection. It later led to the discovery of a company based in Guangdong’s Dongguan. The company planned to print 500,000 such maps. Authorities managed to stop the printing of more than 190,000 maps, although more than 300,000 had been printed.

Of the 300,000 maps, more than 260,000 had been exported to Rotterdam, the Netherlands via Hong Kong.

Shenzhen customs retrieved the maps in January.

Chinese state media did not specify the infringement of sovereignty and territorial integrity detected in the exported maps.

Maps sold on the mainland show internationally-disputed jurisdictions as Chinese territory, including Taiwan and the Nine-Dash Line covering Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea. DB/Xinhua