You know how Google Maps draws a border around the thing you’re looking for? You type in something and it takes you to the right place and if it’s a town, city, province, country or any kind of area that has a boder, it will show that border in red. Open Google Maps and search for Belgium. You’ll see Belgium with a red border. Now do the same but type Vietnam … no border. This is due to the conflict between Vietnam and China about the borders. Google has been shying away from confontation on that level for years now. I noticed this long time ago already. In some cases Google seems to side with the country that it has the biggest financial interest in. It designates the sea to the EAst of Vietnam as the “South China sea”. Many Vietnamese aren’t very happy with that though. But as China is a bigger financial interest for Google … I guess “South China Sea” it is. In areas where the borders are disputed, Google seems to opt for just not marking it at all. Vietnam and China aren’t alone in this case. Here’s a list of countries that will not have a marked border when you look them up:
- Albania
- Bhutan
- China
- Cyprus
- North Korea
- Egypt
- Georgia
- India
- Israel
- Japan
- Kenya
- Malawi
- Mauritania
- Mauritius
- Montenegro
- Morocco
- Nauru
- Pakistan
- Palestine
- Philippines
- South Korea
- Russia
- Serbia
- South Sudan
- Sudan
- Syria
- Macedonia
- Ukraine
- Tanzania
- Vanuatu
- Venezuela
- Vietnam
The image below shows Laos with a red border when looking it up, but Vietnam receiving no such border : 
Luckily, for you as a tourist this doesn’t spell trouble. You’ll still be able to find your way and likely still be able to look things up. But be aware that this may indicate other things. For example – no access to street view. There are countries, among which Vietnam, where street view is not an option. So if you find yourself looking up a country that you may want to visit, and no red border show up … that country may well be in a political dispute with a neighbouring one. Be aware that if you plan on crossing the border (wherever it may be) between the countries you may have to endure some more checks, delays, serious staff and less smiles in general.
For more and detailed information on all of the disputes countries seem to have with each other over borders etc you can go to the CIA site for the World Fact Book