Why does the tournament have the "cow tongue line" attached?

For about two years now, the China Billiards Association (CBSA) has been using a logo with the "cow tongue line" and using it on live video broadcasts of a friendly tournament in which they invited Vietnam's number one player Tran Quyet Chien to participate.

On September 23, Quyet Chien had a friendly match with world number four player Dick Jaspers, at the "world 3-cushion carom friendly tournament", organized by CBSA in Pudong district, Shanghai city, China.

The match was broadcast on the Korean streaming platform AfreecaTV , but in the middle of the match, the CBSA logo with the "cow tongue line" was shown on the screen. At that time, hundreds of Vietnamese people were watching.

Tran Quyet Chien in a friendly match with Dick Jaspers in Shanghai, China on the afternoon of September 23, 2023. Photo: CBSA — Tran Quyet Chien in a friendly match with Dick Jaspers in Shanghai, China on the afternoon of September 23, 2023. Photo: *CBSA*

When discovering that the map of China in the CBSA logo showed both the Paracel and Spratly Islands of Vietnam, Coach Nguyen Viet Hoa immediately contacted Quyet Chien to inform him of the incident. The two decided to withdraw from the tournament and fly back to Vietnam that same evening.

CBSA was founded in 1986, with a logo that featured a red map of China. In a 2021 tournament, the logo did not include the Paracel and Spratly Islands. However, the current logo on CBSA's official website includes both Vietnamese archipelagos. The logo broadcast on AfreecaTV also included the two archipelagos, but the Korean platform later deleted the related video.

The CBSA logo (top left corner) in a 2021 tournament without Vietnam's Paracel and Spratly Islands. Photo: Douyin

CBSA has mainly developed pocket billiards, but recently they have been interested in pocket billiards (carom). To celebrate CBSA's recent membership in the Asian Carom Billiards Federation, they held an event to promote carom in Shanghai from September 21 to September 26. On September 21, the President of the World Carom Billiards Union (UMB) Farouk Barki also came to China to attend the event. Against the backdrop of the tournament's billboards, the logos of CBSA, UMB and a local billiards club were hung highest.

CBSA invited four carom players in the world's Top 10, Cho Myung-woo (Korea), Tayfun Tasdemir (Turkey), Jaspers (Netherlands) and Quyet Chien to attend the event. The four experts also participated in community activities on the morning of September 23, such as visiting Duong Tran Elementary School and playing billiards with students.

That same afternoon, Quyet Chien and three players played a friendly match until the image was not in line with the country's sovereignty . At that time, Vietnam's number one player focused on the match and did not detect the "cow tongue line" image. The UMB President wanted Mr. Viet Hoa and Quyet Chien to give a gentle explanation to the organizers for leaving the tournament, but the two teachers and students refused.

Tran Quyet Chien wearing a red scarf, interacting with a female student in Duong Tran, Pudong, Shanghai, China on the morning of September 23, 2023. Photo: CBSA — Tran Quyet Chien wearing a red scarf, interacting with a female student in Duong Tran, Pudong, Shanghai, China on the morning of September 23, 2023. Photo: *CBSA*

Mr. Nguyen Nam Nhan, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Culture and Sports, told VnExpress that he and the Department personally agreed with this solution because the organizers knew that the participating athletes were from Vietnam but had shown "disrespect". The Department will also send a document to the World Billiard Federation requesting that it seriously consider and respect the participating parties when organizing similar international tournaments.

The friendly tournament was scheduled to take place all day on September 24, but the CBSA website or Chinese sites did not provide any further information about the tournament.

The "cow tongue line", or "nine-dash line", was unilaterally drawn by China to claim unreasonable sovereignty over almost the entire area of the East Sea, including Vietnam's Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagos. The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague, Netherlands, ruled on July 12, 2016 that the "cow tongue line" drawn by China "is not consistent with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea". Vietnam has also repeatedly rejected the so-called nine-dash line as well as maritime claims that are contrary to international law.

Hoang An

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