Chinese postage stamps violate Vietnam's sovereignty

By VnExpress   November 3, 2016 | 09:14 pm PT
Vietnamese collectors have alerted authorities of the violation and called for official disapproval.

The Vietnam Stamp Club, a group of local collectors, has informed the government that China Post’s new stamps violate Vietnam’s sovereignty over an island chain in the East Sea, the Vietnamese reference for the South China Sea.

In a document sent to the information ministry on Wednesday, the group said the Chinese State Post Bureau issued a set of five stamps named “Chinese lighthouses,” depicting lighthouses constructed on five reefs of Vietnam’s Spratly Islands, which were illegally occupied by China in 1988 and 1995.

Hoang Anh Thi, head of the club, said that the new stamps have violated Vietnam’s sovereignty. China uses the pretext of stamp issuance to deceive the public over its illegal actions, Thi added.

This is the third time China Post has released stamps violating Vietnam's sovereignty over the Spratlys and Paracels, another island chain in the East Sea.

Earlier, in 2004 it issued a stamp set featuring frontier scenes of China, one of which showed the image of Paracel Islands, which China has taken by force since 1974.

In 2013, China Post distributed another stamp set with one stamp featuring the islands. This time, the Vietnam’s Post Department demanded that China Post abolish stamps, envelops and postcards that violated Vietnam’s sovereignty and avoid similar acts.

China Post, however, apparently repeated the violation with the new stamps issued late last month.

The Vietnam Stamp Club proposed that the information ministry speak out against China Post's action and issue a set of its own stamps showing images of the Spratly and Paracel Islands to reaffirm Vietnam’s sovereignty.

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