The US National Geographic Society has announced it will revise its naming conventions of the Paracel Islands on its maps to include the words “Hoang Sa.”

An NGS map taken from the website www.natgeomaps.com, showing “Paracel Is.” with “China” written below in red. The NGS has now said it will amend its naming of the island group to reflect Vietnam’s claim of sovereignty over it. (Photo: VNA)

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The NGS press release dated March 16 has been supplemented with more detail after the NGS Map Policy Committee met to discuss the matter in greater detail, said Cindy Beidel, NGS communications manager.

Accordingly, the NGS’s naming conventions of the Paracel Islands on its maps will be revised as follows: “For smaller-scale world maps, use conventional name - Paracel Islands; omit possession label. For larger-scale regional, continental, and sectional maps, use conventional name - Paracel Islands; expand possession qualifier: Occupied by China in 1974, which calls them Xisha Qundao; claimed by Vietnam, which calls them Hoang Sa.”

The committee said it would seek to make independent viewpoints about future changes or clarifications on its maps, and to correct any errors.

These conventions will apply on future printings of NGS maps and will be reflected online in short order, the committee said.

The NGS’s additional press release did not mention whether it would correct its maps on the Internet, but a map found on the website www.natgeomaps.com shows “Paracel Islands” with “China” in red below.

The NGS has also launched an online map at the same webiste, on which the words “Xisha Qundao” appear above the Paracel Islands and “China” in red below.

The NGS said on March 16 that simply denoting the archipelago with the Chinese name and the word “China” without further explanation can be misleading and misinterpreted.

Vietnamese foreign ministry spokesperson Nguyen Phuong Nga on March 13 said, “The world map published by the National Geographic Society indicating “China” below “Paracel Is.” is wrong. We request that the National Geographic Society correct this mistake.”

“Vietnam has indisputable sovereignty over Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagoes,” Ms. Nga said.

VietNamNet/VNA