State media says Vietnam could suffer economically after protests against Chinese oil rig in disputed maritime zone
A riot police officer stands guard outside a damaged building after anti-China protests in Binh Duong province, Vietnam. Photograph: Kham/Reuters
China has castigated Vietnam over an outbreak of deadly protestsagainst a Chinese oil rig in a disputed maritime zone – the worst clashes between the two countries in more than three decades.
On Friday, as the protests that have racked Vietnam over much of the past week began to abate, China's state media issued a flurry of threatening editorials accusing Hanoi of tacitly supporting the violence.
The state newswire Xinhua said that Vietnam was solely responsible for the discord. China Daily urged Hanoi to "shoulder full responsibility for whatever serious consequences the crimes [would] have on China-Vietnam ties".
Thousands of protesters vandalised and set fire to scores of factories at two industrial parks this week in the southern Vietnamese province of Binh Duong and the central province of Ha Tinh.
The death toll remains unclear. A doctor told Reuters that five Vietnamese workers and 16 others "described as Chinese" were killed during the rioting. Chinese state media said more than a dozen people, most of them Chinese, were dead or missing. Factory owners have estimated that one or two people died.
The protests have triggered an exodus of thousands of Chinese businessmen and their families, many of whom have been living in Vietnam for years. News that further protests against Chinese factories and businesses have been planned across the country for 18 May, has sparked even more fear, says Borshow Chen, director general of Taiwan's Economic and Cultural Office in Ho Chi Minh City.
"The government is not giving us full 100% assurance that these protests won't go ahead – which is not good," he says. Unofficial data shows that roughly 40,000 Taiwanese live in Vietnam, he adds, and over the past 30 years a strong Taiwanese-Vietnamese tie has been forged: some 4,000 Taiwanese companies here, worth $30bn (£18bn), employ about 1 million Vietnamese, at risk of losing money – and job opportunities – if these protests continue.
"This is resulting in a total loss of confidence for us in the Vietnamese government," he continues. "Over 2,000 Taiwanese people have already left. If these demonstrations go ahead, what will happen next?"
The latest round of tensions began on 1 May, when state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation deployed an oil rig in a patch of disputed territory 150 miles from Vietnam's coast. China maintains that the rig is in its "indisputable sovereign territory" near the south-western end of the Paracel islands, a 5,800 sq mile archipelago that it claims. It plans to operate the rig until typhoon season begins on 15 August.
China is Vietnam's largest trade partner, and the editorials warned that Vietnam could suffer economically from its resistance to China's territorial claims. "Vietnam's failure to rein in deadly mob attacks against foreign nationals and investment … tarnishes Vietnam's international image and undermines the government's credibility," said a Xinhua editorial.
The Vietnamese government claims that 600 people have been arrested in connection with the attacks since Tuesday. Vietnam's prime minister sent a text message on Friday to millions of Vietnamese encouraging them to "defend the fatherland's sacred sovereignty" while refraining from violence, according to the Associated Press. The message did not explicitly condemn the riots.
The announcements have done little to combat panic among Chinese nationals in Vietnam, many of whom have fled the country. About 600 have sought refuge in Cambodia, a police spokesman told Reuters on Thursday.
Joe Biden, the US vice-president, has said the US is "seriously concerned" about China's "dangerous" actions in the region.
During a visit to Washington, General Fang Fenghui, the Chinese army's chief of general staff, blamed the US for inflaming regional tensions. The "border territory which has passed down from our ancestors into the hands of our generation – we cannot afford to lose an inch," he said. "We do not make trouble. We do not create trouble. But we are not afraid of trouble."
Analysts say Sino-Vietnamese relations may be at their worst since the two countries fought a fierce, month-long border war in early 1979. Chinese troops stormed northern Vietnam soon after Vietnam invaded Cambodia, which was then led by the China-friendly Khmer Rouge. China and Vietnam did not normalise diplomatic relations until 1991.
2 comments:
joe biden the US vice- prez is a clown.. his son just got appointed to the board of director of the largest gas company in ukraine which the the US gov has spent close to 5 billion dollars to overthrow the previous regime so their corporate friends could take over that gas company... it is all about money.... not democracy as they claim... the US gov never does thing out of the goodness of its heart because it is dominated by corporations... their owners are the ones who really run this country... they bought/ and own congress and the president office.
vietnam just shoot itself in the foot... burning those factories will put themselves out of work... plus no investors will want to take a chance now for fear that it might happen to them ... hopefully khmers would also quit buying products from the Youns so that their economy would go down the drain as well...guard the borders well , there will be a influx of the youns into cambodiqa soon , looking for opportunities to work or commit crime to live.
Vietnam will be fine. They are 80+million strong and other investors are waiting for the opportunity to move in after the Chinese run away . Vietnam still has Cambodia and Laos to support their economy also so nothing to fear. US is also waiting to offer help when ever Vietnam is ready to form a fake Alliance with the nieve US and the Horny United States arm forces.
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