Sino-Vietnam ties worsen

Sino-Vietnam ties worsen

China on Thursday urged Vietnam to halt all acts which violate Chinese sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and the surrounding waters, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei. China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and the surrounding waters, which belong to the South China Sea, Hong said, adding that Chinese fishermen have been fishing on the Vanguard Bank of the Nansha Islands from generation to generation. However, Chinese fishing boats, while operating in the above waters, were chased away by armed Vietnamese ships on Thursday morning. Amid the chasing turmoil, the fishing net of one of the Chinese fishing boats got tangled with the cables of an Vietnamese oil exploring vessel, which was operating illegally in the same water area. Regardless of the safety of the Chinese fishermen, the oil exploration boat continued dragging the Chinese fishing boat for more than one hour, with the latter's tail facing the front. The Chinese fishermen, therefore, had to cut off the fishing net before the two vessels lost contact."This has seriously endangered the safety of the Chinese fishermen," Hong said. The oil exploration on the Vanguard Bank and chasing away of the Chinese boats by the Vietnamese side have grossly infringed the Chinese sovereignty and maritime rights, Hong said. Vietnam must stop all action that violates the Chinese sovereignty, he noted. No more action is allowed to endanger the safety of the Chinese fishermen and their properties. And no action should be taken to amplify the dispute and make it more complicated, he added.

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90776/90883/7405550.html
On Fri, 10/6/11, Sidel, Mark <mark-sidel@uiowa.edu> wrote:

Sino-Vietnam ties worsen

South China Morning Post Sino-Vietnam ties worsen Hanoi angry over incident involving Chinese fishing boat and oil exploration ship, a sign of icy relations Greg Torode Updated on Jun 10, 2011    Vietnam last night accused a Chinese fishing boat of intentionally ramming and damaging survey cables a Vietnamese oil ship was towing deep in its southern waters - the latest sign of worsening Sino-Vietnamese tensions over the disputed South China Sea. Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Nga said the case was another "serious violation" of Vietnamese sovereignty and it had been raised with Chinese envoys in Hanoi. China has yet to respond. She said the fishing boat used a device to try to cut the cables of the Viking 2 survey ship and became entangled at about 6am. Two Chinese fisheries patrol vessels came to its assistance, she said. Other officials said Vietnamese patrols were also in the area. "Despite the warning flag from the Vietnamese side, the fishing boat No 62226 intentionally rammed into the exploration cables of the Viking 2," Nga said. The incident comes amid diplomatic exchanges over Chinese maritime surveillance ships cutting cables towed by a Vietnamese ship further north on May 26. Both incidents fall within waters that Vietnam insists are its exclusive economic zone but still fall within China's historic claim to virtually the entire South China Sea. Nga said the second incident occurred within one of Vietnam's southernmost oil exploration areas and on its continental shelf. The Norwegian-flagged Viking 2 is chartered from a French firm to a subsidiary of Vietnam's state oil firm Petro-Vietnam.  Three Chinese ships surrounded the Viking 2 for several hours on May 31 when it was conducting surveys for the Japanese oil firm Idemitsu. It was unclear if the ship was still working for Idemitsu Oil industry officials said that Idemitsu was among the foreign companies, including US giant ExxonMobil and BP, that Chinese officials repeatedly threatened with reprisals unless they pulled out of their deals with Vietnam. Beijing views the deals as a breach of Chinese sovereignty. Vietnamese officials warned their Japanese counterparts over the threats, and Japanese officials, along with other regional envoys, are monitoring the developments. Idemitsu decided to stay on despite the pressure, believing its deals to be legal under international law. After a week that has seen intensified diplomatic broadsides between Beijing and Hanoi and protests from young Vietnamese nationalists on the streets of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Los Angeles, veteran Vietnam scholar Professor Carl Thayer said Sino-Vietnamese tensions were at their worst since 1992. Ties between Hanoi and Beijing were only normalized in 1991 after a brief but bloody border war 12 years earlier."We are seeing this break out in a very public way, rather than simply being dealt with behind closed doors ... Beijing cannot be happy with Hanoi over that," he said. "We are also seeing a new, aggressive assertion of Chinese sovereignty ... their new patrol vessels are acting almost like cops on the beat, prepared to go anywhere at anytime to assert their sovereignty in a way the others can't."Thayer, an academic at the Australian Defence Force Academy who has studied Sino-Vietnamese relations for more than 40 years, also said: "That could prove very important if it ever came before an international court, the defence and assertion of sovereignty on a daily basis."Speaking about the May 26 incident, Singapore-based mainland scholar Dr Wang Hanling said the situation in the South China Sea remained normal. What had changed, he said, was Vietnam's increasingly public position and aggressive statements and its intensifying survey activities."I don't believe the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry's various references are helpful to the situation," Wang, director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Centre for Oceans Affairs and the Law of the Sea, said. "The Vietnamese side should go back to the negotiating table rather than continue all this publicity.
"Additional reporting by Agence France-Pressegreg.torode@scmp.com <mailto:greg.torode@scmp.com>