by LINA SINKARI (translated by JOSEPH FRONCZAK)
The wave of discontent in Vietnam against China’s deployment in May of an oil drilling rig in waters claimed by Vietnam in the South China Sea already has resulted in the death of a Chinese worker and the injury of a hundred more. After a series of protests last week, riots broke out Tuesday at first in the country’s southern industrial zones dominated by foreign capital and then spread to 22 of Vietnam’s 63 provinces, with 20,000 protesters taking part. “I have requested that the prime minister take severe measures,” Bui Quang Vinh, Prime Minister of Planning and Investments, announced after industrial parks were pillaged, including a Taiwanese-owned steel plant that saw three of its buildings housing Chinese workers reduced to ashes. Amid the riots, several factories, including that of a supplier for Nike and Adidas, closed up shop. “The rioters have left, but we’re afraid they’ll return,” Huang Chih-peng, a Taiwanese diplomat, explained. Other factories near Ho Chi Minh City were left in flames on Tuesday. After the deployment of anti-riot police forces and the arrest of 500 people, the Vietnamese authorities assured the public that the situation was under control. Additionally, according to Cambodian authorities, 600 Chinese nationals have crossed the border from Vietnam into Cambodia at the Bavet checkpoint.
The Memory of the Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979 Still Lingers
Not only did Beijing deploy an oil drilling rig into the South China Sea’s contested waters, the regime deployed 83 ships as well. In Vietnam, these maneuvers were understood as acts of aggression and they stirred up nationalist sentiment. Throughout Vietnam, memories linger of China’s many past invasions, particularly the campaigns of the Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979. Such memories infuse each incident with the chance of provoking war.
The exercise of sovereignty over the Paracel and Spratly Islands, with their prime locations along maritime routes and their promise of hydrocarbon exploitation, provokes recurrent skirmishes between China, Vietnam, and also Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia, and the Philippines. The United States’ desire to relocate 60% of its naval forces to the Asian Pacific by 2020 has renewed the tensions. Currently, the array of military bases and the United States’ alliances with Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and the Philippines leave Beijing feeling surrounded.
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