The Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) has asked the Hanoi University of Business and Technology to remove textbooks containing the Chinese illegally claimed nine-dash line being used in the university, local media reported.

The book "Developing Chinese" with a nine-dash line printed on page 36. Photo: Thu Huyen

Accordingly, MoET required the university to review and report on the use of a learning and teaching material at the university’s Faculty of Chinese and Japanese.

Speaking to Tuoi Tre Online on November 4, Prof. Vu Van Hoa, vice rector of the Hanoi University of Business and Technology, said his university had worked with the Faculty of Chinese and Japanese and asked the faculty to explain the use of documents printed with the nine-dash line.

Earlier, the university’s Faculty of Chinese and Japanese received the book "Developing Chinese" with a nine-dash line printed on page 36 from Chinese partner of the Chinese Language University.

According to the Hanoi University of Business and Technology’s vice rector, documents purchased from abroad can be used as a textbook. However, it must be evaluated by the university’s science council. Thereafter, the science council will decide whether it may be used for education or not.

For the book "Developing Chinese" and another Chinese document, the Faculty of Chinese and Japanese skipped this step, leaving it to the faculty's scientific advisory board to assess, who then allowed for photocopying and providing them for the students.

"Discipline for scientific advisory board and leadership of the Faculty of Chinese and Japanese is currently not discussed by our administrators, but will be certainly required," Prof. Vu Van Hoa said, adding that the university had recalled 716 books from the students and gave them the money back.