China has asked 29 of the world's top 500 companies to rectify online maps that incorrectly portray China's territory in the first half of 2019. 

China has also inspected maps used at conferences and exhibitions by official departments in the first half of 2019, the Ministry of Natural Resources said on Friday. 

Problematic maps were found in online news related to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, on websites related to the Belt and Road Initiative and the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations, and all the maps have been rectified, the ministry said. 

These maps damage the unification of state sovereignty, territorial integrity and national interests, the ministry stressed.

A nationwide promotion will be launched to provide knowledge on maps in schools, local communities and media in August, according to  the ministry. 

August 29 is national surveying and mapping day of China. 

In 2018, the ministry examined 8,546 maps and more than 500,000 images of maps. It destroyed more than 290,000 incorrect maps which were printed in South China's Guangdong Province East China's Shandong Province. 

In March 2019, Chinese customs authorities in Qingdao, Shandong, seized and destroyed 30,000 incorrect world maps, with problems including rendering Taiwan as a country and the wrong depiction of the Sino-Indian border - the largest number to be disposed of recently. 

Incorrect maps have also been seen in movies, TV series and publications and some foreign companies. 

German carmaker Audi apologized in 2017 for using an inaccurate China map at its annual press conference and Japanese electronics maker Kyocera apologized in 2018 for only showing half of China's territory on a map from its Chinese website.

Recent discussion on problematic maps surfaced last week after a popular TV drama Go Go Squid showed a map that failed to identify the islands of Taiwan and Hainan Province, South Tibet and Aksai Chin as part of China.
Newspaper headline: Ministry asks 29 world firms to rectify maps