China takes this issue seriously because it has government censorship of many kinds of publications, and in international law, maps matter. (A map can indicate acquiescence to another country&#x27;s territorial claim, so dictatorships that have territorial disputes with other countries censor maps.) There have been submissions to Hacker News about this issue before, and I have commented on those submissions from this standpoint of international law.[1][2] See also the Reuters news story &quot;China tightens rules on maps amid territorial disputes&quot;[3] (16 December 2015).<p>In countries that are not dictatorships, national officials may announce that they refuse to accept certain territorial claims, and simply make sure that officially published maps support the country&#x27;s view of territorial claims. That can include a country publishing maps that say &quot;boundary representations are not necessarily authoritative&quot; when the country&#x27;s government has no settled opinion on territorial disputes regarded by other countries. If you have access to maps published by a variety of official and nonofficial publishers, you can compare for yourself how different publishers treat the issue of territorial claims in the South China Sea (the example that is prominent in today&#x27;s article) or in the border region of Nicaragua and Costa Rica (the earlier example cited below) or in Palestine (the later example cited below). You could also look up Kashmir on a lot of different maps and look for border details on those maps.<p>[1] 1387 days ago, comments to submission &quot;The First Google Maps War&quot; from the opinion page of the New York Times:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=3645784#up_3645845" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=3645784#up_3645845</a><p>[2] 958 days ago, comments to submission &quot;Google changes Palestinian location from &#x27;Territories&#x27; to &#x27;Palestine&#x27; from the BBC:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=5651456#up_5651804" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=5651456#up_5651804</a><p>[3] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reuters.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;us-china-maps-idUSKBN0TZ1AR20151216" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reuters.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;us-china-maps-idUSKBN0TZ1AR20...</a>