There is also a famous expert who express concerns about this China's assertiveness:
The recurrent strife between China and Vietnam
(Roberto Tofani)
The ‘statement war’ over the disputed islands in the South China Sea—or East Sea, as referred to by the Vietnamese–between China and Vietnam is gaining steam. Actually it was never dormant, but at times it becomes more ferocious than in others.
On May 2 the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) moved the drilling rig HD-981 operating at 15029’ latitude’s and 111012’ longitude’s east, to about 130 nautical miles from the Vietnamese coast, close to the Paracel archipelago.
On the same day, according to Reuters, “Maritime Safety Administration of China (MSAC) published an announcement on its website saying it prohibits all marine vessels entering into a one mile radius of the Haiyang Shiyou 981′s South China Sea drilling work.” The $1 billion oil rig, owned by CNOOC, had been drilling south of Hong Kong.
Last Sunday the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs protested the illegal foray of China’s deep-water drilling rig into Vietnamese waters, which is within the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf of Vietnam. “The location that the drilling rig HD-981 operates as stated in the China Maritime Safety Administration’s notice is undeniably within Viet Nam’s exclusive economic zone and continental shelf, just about 130 nautical miles from its coast. Viet Nam resolutely protests any activity conducted by foreign countries in its waters without permission. Such an activity is illegal and void,” FM Spokesman Le Hai Binh remarked on May 4. And it “constitutes a violation of Viet Nam’s sovereign rights and jurisdiction under the provisions of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea,” as underlined in a press release by the State owned enterprise Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam).
Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh called Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi and told him the deployment of the deep sea rig, which he said was accompanied by military vessels, was illegal and a violation of Vietnamese sovereignty. “Vietnam cannot accept and resolutely protests this Chinese action. It demands that China withdraw the rig HD981 and escort its vessels from this area,” a Vietnamese government statement quoted Minh as telling Yang. However, Beijing insists that the rig, CNOOC 981, is in its territorial waters.
Interviewed by the the Vietnamese newspaper ‘Thanh Nien’, Carl Thayer, a maritime expert of the University of New South Wales in Australia said that it is “business as usual in China’s use of illegal force to advance its sovereignty claims.” The Chinese move has thus increased tensions and, after the Vietnamese statements an editorial of the Chinese newspaper ‘Global Times’ threatened Vietnam with a ‘lesson it deserves’.
Two years ago, at the end of May, a Chinese patrol boat intentionally severed a seismic cable towed by a Vietnamese survey vessel working about 120 miles off Vietnam’s shore and hundreds of miles south of China’s Hainan Island. The incident occurred well within Vietnam’s 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone as defined by the Law of the Sea Treaty (signed by both Vietnam and China). On that occasion, hundreds of Vietnamese marched on the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi and the Chinese Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City in a rare public protest to condemn what they called ‘China’s violation of Vietnamese sovereignty’ in the disputed South China Sea. This was similar to an incident in December 2007, when widespread anger over China’s growing assertiveness about its claims to the Paracels and Spratlys drew hundreds of people into the streets of Hanoi.
“We are sick and tired of this whole situation and for sure we are ready to take the street as we did in the past,” explained a University student eager to take the protest out in the open.
