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Who discovered America?

An amateur antique collector has formally unveiled a world map which, if authentic, may prove that Chinese explorers circumnavigated the globe well before Columbus ever set sail.

Liu Gang, a prominent intellectual property rights lawyer, says he bought the map in a Shanghai bookshop in 2001.

It appears to be a copy made in 1763 of a map drawn in 1418, recording the explorations of admiral Zheng He, who made several voyages to Africa and possibly beyond during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644).

The map is extraordinarily detailed, showing North and South America, Africa and even Antarctica.

Mr Liu presented a smattering of mostly circumstantial evidence to support his claim. He pointed to a map drawn by Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit missionary who lived in China in the late 15th century.

On this map, which is generally assumed to be the first world map seen by the Chinese, Ricci marked Brazil as "known by the Chinese as Sumu". Mr Liu asked: "If the Chinese did not know that part of the world, how did they have their own name for it?"

Even if the map does date from 1763, it may not be an exact copy of the 1418 original. Asked if the 1763 copyist might have made "improvements", Mr Liu said the copyist had marked his alterations explicitly.

"On the map he refers to himself [in a manner indicating] he was addressing the emperor. Why would he lie to the emperor, and risk being killed along with all his relatives?"

LIU GANG may turn out to be a discerning collector whose lucky find of an ancient map will rewrite history. Or he may be a pawn, nudged along by people whose interests lie in promoting the view that Chinese sailors discovered the Americas before Christopher Columbus landed in the New World in 1492.

Mr Liu isn't fazed by the furore generated by the unveiling his acquisition from an antique dealer in Shanghai. "I am quite sure that this map is real," he says.

Mr Liu's map has rekindled a fierce debate sparked by a similar notion set out in amateur historian Gavin Menzies' book 1421: The Year China Discovered the World, which argues that Zheng circumnavigated the world and discovered the Americas.