China Attends ASEAN Summit Amid Mapping Disputes

China's Premier Li Qiang is calling on its Asian neighbors to avoid a "new cold war." The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, is holding its 2023 summit in Indonesia this week. A week ago, China released a new map claiming almost 90 percent of the South China Sea as its own, angering its neighbors. They also claim parts of the sea as their territory. Some of the controversial area is located around a thousand miles from China, but only a few dozen miles away from its neighbors. Taiwan is also taking issue. Its entire land mass is painted as Chinese territory in the new map, but This self-governed island has never been ruled by the Chinese communist regime and staunchly denies Chinese rule. The South China Sea dispute is a long-running one. Back in 2016, an international court invalidated China's claim, but China's 2023 map claims even a larger chunk of territory than the original.