Hello,

I’ve sent you this message because your recent edits, such as osm.org/changeset/83787487, see to be purely political.

The way that such disputes are judged in OSM can be found at https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/w/images/d/d8/DisputedTerritoriesInformation.pdf . OpenStreetMap, as per the linked PDF, gives more weight to the actual “line of control” than some other institutions.

If you think, after reading that PDF, that the Paracels and are not correctly represented in OSM then please email OSM’s Data Working Group at “data@osmfoundation.org” explaining the problem in detail. However, please don’t just say things like “historically X belongs to country A” as that is way down the list of things that will be considered important. In cases such as this there are often multiple historical precedents, treaties, UN resolutions and other factors that can be taken into consideration and cherry-picking from these can be used to support a number of different political views.

One more thing - there should be enough information in OpenStreetMap to allow anyone to create a map of any country with its desired borders. This is important because some countries have laws about how they should be represented on maps, and those desired representations sometimes contradict each other (that’s why the representation at openstreetmap.org can’t please everyone - each set of map tiles covers the whole workd). If you’d like help creating a map of Vietnam showing its desired borders please ask, and I’m sure that someone will be able to help you.