Warning: Android smartphones sold in Vietnam have installed maps of the nine-dash line

Ho Chi Minh City Department of Information and Communications warns that there are smartphones sold in the Vietnamese market that have installed maps of the nine-dash line, violating international law.

Mr. Le Quoc Cuong, Deputy Director of the Department of Information and Communications of Ho Chi Minh City, told ICTnews on June 2 that he discovered that some smartphones made in China had information about sovereignty disputes integrated inside, including a map of the nine-dash line that China unilaterally and illegally established.

Previously, a phone store in Ho Chi Minh City said it had received an interdisciplinary inspection team to inspect Xiaomi products on June 1. The store owner said he had heard that Xiaomi phones contained China's illegal nine-dash line map, which could be the reason why the company's products were inspected.

Illegal cow tongue map (brown dashed line) on China's Baidu map - Screenshot.

A representative of Digiworld, the official importer of Xiaomi products in Vietnam, said that no genuine Xiaomi products sold in Vietnam distributed by this company have the nine-dash line map installed.

It is believed that the map with the nine-dash line was developed by Baidu, a Chinese company, and installed by default on many smartphones sold in the Chinese market. However, most phone companies when selling smartphones to foreign markets use international ROMs, so the Baidu map has been replaced by Google Maps – which does not contain information about the nine-dash line map.

Therefore, Chinese devices that still have Baidu maps installed may not have the international ROM installed, either intentionally or unintentionally by the distributor; it is also possible that the device does not have a software version for the foreign market.

ICTnews reporters tried to find Baidu maps on Google Play Store and installed them, and saw a map of the nine-dash line covering a large area of ​​the East Sea illegally drawn by China.

Baidu's illegal cow tongue map can be installed on any smartphone that can access the Google Play Store - Photo: H.Đ

Thus, any smartphone using the Android operating system when downloading and installing Baidu maps will appear maps with the nine-dash line that violates international law. Users must be extremely careful, should not download unclear map software, especially map software from Chinese companies, should only use Vietnamese map software such as VietMap or GoogleMap.

According to Ict News