China’s passports anger neighbors

China’s new passports, which feature a map of Beijing’s claim to almost all of the South China Sea, have sparked fury of neighboring countries.

Vietnam said on Tuesday that it will not stamp entry visas into the controversial passports.

“We do not stamp the new Chinese passports,” said an official at Hanoi’s Noi Bai Airport on condition of anonymity, adding, “We issue them a separate visa.”

Hanoi says the new passports violate its sovereignty by showing the contested Paracel and Spratly Islands as Chinese territory.

Taiwan, India, and Philippines also protested the computer-chipped biometric passports.

Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou on Friday asked China not to “unilaterally damage the status quo of the hard-fought stability across the Taiwan Strait” by issuing the controversial passports.

The passports also represent two of Taiwan’s most famous scenic spots as Chinese territory.

India reacted to Beijing’s new passports by stamping its own map onto visas issued to Chinese visitors.

New Delhi criticized Beijing for using the passports to represent the disputed border areas of Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin as Chinese territory.

Philippines sent China a formal protest letter, describing the map included in the passports as “an excessive declaration of maritime space in violation of international law.”

Beijing has attempted to calm the situation, saying the map was “not made to target any specific country.”

The South China Sea, believed to be rich in resources, is home to some of the world’s most important shipping lanes.