New Delhi: Gunpowder, paper, compass, you name it and Chinese say they discovered it. And now they claim they were the ones to discover America, not Christopher Columbus.
An 18th century reproduction of a Chinese map dated 1418 suggests a Chinese fleet sailed to America decades before Columbus did in 1492.
The map also gives teeth to claims of an amateur historian Gavin Menzies, who wrote a bestseller called 1421: The Year China Discovered America.
In his book, Menzies says Admiral Zheng He led a fleet of 30,000 men aboard 300 ships to the American continent in the 15th century to expand Ming China's influence.
But skeptics point to inconsistencies in the book and the map. They say the map shows both North and South America in unusual detail.
Despite its prominence on best-seller lists, many historians have criticised Menzies' theories for lack of evidence.
China's Ming Dynasty had banned ocean-going exploration and trade after Zheng He's final voyage, largely due to the death of Emperor Zhu Di, who sponsored the voyages.
The huge costs of Zheng's fleets, which often numbered hundreds of ships, were another factor.
The Chinese records of Zheng He's voyages have largely been lost either purposely destroyed as part of the ban on ocean-going navigation or due to fires that ravaged Beijing's imperial palace in the 1420s.
Liu believes a lot of the records still exist, but Chinese scholars have largely ignored them.
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