So far this year, 28,253 Chinese travelers arriving at the seaport of Da Nang have been found using passports with China’s cow tongue line on them. The line illegally puts about 80 percent of the East Sea under Chinese sovereignty.

This information was reported by the Da Nang Border Guard on Wednesday.  

Of these Chinese travelers, 8,279 had entry and exit permits issued under Decision No. 849/2004/QD-BCA by the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security.

Notably, a ship named Henna, with Maltese nationality, arrived at the Da Nang port carrying 537 Chinese passengers whose passports had the cow’s tongue line printed on them, the local border guard force said.

After examination, the line, also known as the nine-dash line was printed on the 8^th, 24^th and 46^th pages of each the passports.

For those with such passports, the Border Gate Station at the Da Nang Port did not stick a visa label in their passports, but provided them with loose-leaf visa to enable them to travel in Da Nang, the station said.

A person is seen holding a passport in this photo illustration.

The nine-dash line was first introduced in China in 1947. Beijing presented the plan to the United Nations in 2009 to illegally claim sovereignty over nearly the entire East Sea, Viet Nam’s Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagoes.

The Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has repeatedly rejected the illegal nine-dash line and affirmed that Viet Nam has full historical and legal evidence to prove its indisputable sovereignty over Hoang Sa and Truong Sa.

Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang, in delivering an important speech at the Center for Study of International Strategies in the U.S. on July 26, 2013, as part of his visit to the country, also reiterated that Viet Nam consistently opposes China’s cow tongue line since the line is not based on any legal or scientific ground.

(Source: Tuoi Tre News)