Global Tensions Rise

Vietnam, caught between the aggressive nationalist movement and offending their main trading partner, China; refuses to budge on the South China Sea. Suporno Chaudhury writes.

Waters never seem to remain calm in the South China Sea. In lieu of a recent video release by the Vietnamese government blaming the Chinese Navy of unprovoked aggression, the two Asian countries have erupted in a war of words. The official video shows Chinese ships firing high power water cannons and ramming into Vietnamese fishery protection and coastal guard vessels, dispatched in the area to stop Beijing from securing an oil rig in the South China Sea. Yi Xianliang, Deputy Director General of the Foreign Ministry's department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs countered in a press release saying, “From 3 May to 7 May, in a short period of five days, Vietnam has dispatched 35 vessels of various kinds which rammed Chinese ships as many as 171 times.”

On May 2 Haiyang Shiyou 981, a China National Offshore Oil Corporation owned drilling rig began operating, 17 nautical miles south of the Zhongjjan Island, part of the Xisha Island, escorted by a flotilla of ships, many of which were heavily armed. The Vietnamese coastguards hastened to the spot to stop the oil rig from establishing a “fixed position” and they have exercised “heavy restrain”, but will be forced to countermand if the provocations continue, as mentioned by Ngo Ngoc Thu, Vice-Commander of Vietnam's coastguard.

In a situation similar to 1992, China awarded exploration and drilling rights to a United States of America (USA) based energy company Crestone for the Spratly Islands – a move heavily contested by the Vietnamese government. Within two years, the constant harassment by Vietnam's Navy forced Crestone to abandon the oil rig. Such an end seems highly unlikely now, mainly because of the direct involvement of the armed Chinese flotilla. With the increasing interest of the USA in conducting naval exercises in the areaand the recent arrest of 11 Chinese fisherman convicted of capturing endangered turtle species by Philippines, temperature in the South China Sea seems to be at an all-time high. For the benefit of world peace, one can only hope for the standoff to deescalate as soon as possible.

(Edited by Shruthi Subramanian)