woensdag 14 mei 2014

Factories burnt in Vietnam anti-China protest

14 May 2014 Last updated at 09:27 GMT

Factories burnt in Vietnam anti-China protest

Smoke and flames billow from a factory window in Binh Duong on 14 May as anti-China protesters set several factories on fire in Vietnam, according to state media, in an escalating backlash against Beijing's deployment of an oil rig in contested waters.

Protestors reportedly targeted companies with Chinese characters in their logos or signs

Several factories have been set on fire amid anti-China protests at an industrial park in southern Vietnam, amid tensions over the South China Sea.

The park's management said three factories were set on fire on Tuesday, but other reports put the figure as high as 15.

No casualties have been reported but officials said many arrests were made.

The protests came after China moved a drilling rig into waters claimed by Vietnam earlier this month.

In a daily press briefing, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said Vietnam was a "provocateur" and that Beijing had expressed concern to Hanoi.

'Chinese targeted'

The management of the Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP) said that protesters gathered on Monday in Thuan An town, in the southern Binh Duong province.

Analysis

Nga PhamBBC News

Nationalist sentiment of this intensity has not been seen in Vietnam for many years.

Tuesday's protests in Binh Duong confirmed the government's worst fear, that nationalism could easily get out of hand, posing a great risk not only to the business environment but also to domestic political stability.

The Vietnamese authorities were quick to condemn the anti-China violence and arrested some people they called "agitators".

But critics say that other contributing factors such as social discontent and limited labour rights cannot be overlooked.

On Tuesday they moved on to VSIP's two industrial parks nearby and targeted factories owned or managed by the Chinese and Chinese expatriates.

A spokesman for VSIP told the BBC the three factories were set on fire on Tuesday night after workers had gone home.

Not all of the tenants of the three factories were Chinese companies, she said. Some Taiwanese companies had been affected.

Other reports suggested the violence was more widespread, with more factories targeted.

A local official estimated that around 19,000 workers took part in the protest and that at least 15 factories were set on fire, according to local media.

One photo carried by Vietnamese media showed a factory had draped a South Korean flag at its entrance in a bid to stave off attacks.

The BBC also spoke to an employee of a Singaporean company in the industrial park who saw four burnt buildings on Wednesday morning.

Another eight were partially damaged, and had shattered windows and smashed front gates. These included buildings belonging to a Taiwan-founded shoe company.

"The protesters appeared to have targeted companies that had Chinese characters in their logos or signs," said the employee, who declined to be named.

The protest has spooked some foreign companies. Reuters reported that Hong Kong-listed sports shoe maker Yue Yuen, which supplies footwear to Adidas, Nike and other international brands, had suspended production in Vietnam.

'Provocative'

Earlier this month, China moved its Haiyang Shiyou 981 oil rig to a spot 120 nautical miles off the coast of Vietnam.

The area is near the Paracel Islands, over which China and Vietnam have contesting claims.

The move sparked bitter protest from the Vietnamese government, which demanded an immediate pull-out.

Last week, several collisions were reported between ships from the two countries as Vietnam sought to block the installation of the rig.

Ships have also been exchanging water cannon fire and dozens of vessels are reported to be in the area.

Protests have been staged in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City over the past week. Vietnamese activists marched to the Chinese embassy in Hanoi on Sunday and again on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, the US warned China that its actions were "provocative".

In a telephone call, US Secretary of State John Kerry told Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi that the US had "strong concerns" over recent developments.

Mr Wang, meanwhile, urged Mr Kerry to be objective on the issue, a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman said.

'Intentions not clear'

Beijing claims a U-shaped swathe of the South China Sea that covers areas other South East Asian nations say are their territory.

In this photo released by Vietnam Coast Guard, a Chinese ship, left, shoots water cannon at a Vietnamese vessel, right, while a Chinese Coast Guard ship, centre, sails alongside in the South China Sea, off Vietnam's coast, Wednesday, 7 May 2014

Ships from Vietnam and China have been exchanging water cannon fire

The issue has been rumbling in recent years amid an increasingly assertive stance from China over its claims.

The Philippines on Wednesday accused China of reclaiming land on a disputed South China Sea reef in order to build a new facility - possibly an airstrip or a military base.

Manila lodged a protest last month after images taken from the air showed China had been moving materials into Johnson Reef in the Spratly Islands, officials said.

"We're not exactly sure what are their intentions there," Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario told the Associated Press news agency.

Ties between Beijing and Manila have deteriorated severely in recent months because of the territorial row.

Manila is taking Beijing to an international court over the issue. It also recently signed a security deal with the US allowing more troops onto its soil, in a move seen as reflecting the difficult ties with China.

Vietnam protesters attack China over sea dispute

Protesters shout slogans outside the Chinese embassy

The protests included Vietnamese government supporters

Hundreds of people across Vietnam have protested against China's role in a sea dispute - the largest rallies of their kind recently in the communist country.

In the capital, Hanoi, demonstrators sang patriotic songs and held up placards opposite the Chinese embassy.

Tensions have been running high after Vietnamese ships clashed with Chinese vessels guarding an oil rig in a contested area of the South China Sea.

The protests appear to have the Vietnamese government's approval.

The country's communist authorities have broken up previous anti-China demonstrations because of fears that they may be hijacked by pro-democracy activists, says the BBC's Asia Pacific editor, Charles Scanlon.

Nevertheless, he says, Hanoi has also used the demonstrations to communicate its anger over what it sees as Beijing's aggressive infringement of Vietnamese sovereignty.

The BBC's Charles Scanlon says Vietnam's authorities rarely allow such rallies, so they are a sign of the extent of the country's anger

The protesters opposite the Chinese embassy on Sunday included war veterans and students.

"This is the largest anti-Chinese demonstration I have ever seen in Hanoi," a war veteran named Dang Quang Thang told the AFP news agency.

"Our patience has limits. We are here to express the will of the Vietnamese people to defend our territory at all costs. We are ready to die to protect our nation," he is quoted as saying.

Large anti-China protests were also seen in other Vietnamese cities.

US warning

Earlier this month, ships from the two countries collided near a Chinese oil drilling platform in the South China Sea.

Paracel Islands

Called Xisha in Chinese, Hoang Sa in Vietnamese
Claimed by China, Taiwan and Vietnam
More than 30 islands and reefs, including two main groups: the Amphitrite group and the Crescent group
Woody (Yongxing) Island, the largest island in the archipelago, now hosts the City of Sansha with a small community of fishermen, civil servants and soldiers
Vietnam maintains 'historical claims' to the Paracels without physical presence there
It controlled several islands within the Crescent group, where it had a weather station, until 1974, when after a brief but bloody clash China gained control over the entire archipelago

China has warned Vietnam to withdraw its ships from waters, off the disputed Paracel Islands, that it claims as its own.

But Vietnam - which also claims that stretch of sea - accused China of having sent 80 vessels, including navy ships, to support an oil drilling operation.

It released video footage to back its claim that Chinese ships had rammed Vietnamese vessels.

The US has accused China of provocation, and warned that the dispute could destabilise the region.

The issue was also discussed by foreign ministers at the 10-member ASEAN summit of south-east Asian Nations in Myanmar (also known as Burma).

15 January 2014 Last updated at 02:16 GMT

Shift as Vietnam marks South China Sea battle

By Nga PhamBBC News

Aerial view of Sansha city on an island in the disputed Paracel chain on 27 January 2012

China has built the city of Sansha on the disputed Paracel Islands

Forty years ago dozens of Vietnamese soldiers were killed in a bloody battle with Chinese troops over disputed islands in the South China Sea.

This year, for the first time, Vietnam's state media is publicly marking the event, printing numerous articles on the battle.

The move comes in the month that the Chinese government published new rules requiring foreign fishing vessels to seek Beijing's permission to operate in most of the South China Sea - an action likely to further raise anti-China rhetoric in the Vietnamese press.

Prior to the battle, Vietnam had controlled some islands within the Paracel archipelago (Xisha in Chinese) and China had controlled others. Both sides claimed them in full, as did Taiwan.

On 19 January 1974 a clash erupted between the South Vietnamese navy and Chinese forces.

Three of the four Vietnamese warships had to retreat while the fourth sank with its captain on board.

As a result, China gained control over the entire group of islands, now part its newly-established Sansha prefecture.

The current government renewed Vietnam's claim to the Paracels (Hoang Sa in Vietnamese) after the Vietnam war ended, but to date has rarely mentioned the 1974 naval clash. The event is not even included in modern history textbooks.

Up to 1975 the Paracel archipelago was claimed by the US-backed Saigon government. At the time Hanoi did not protest China's occupation of the islands nor - for a long time - recognise the South Vietnamese soldiers' loss of life - because they were considered by the communist North to be an enemy army.

Paracel Islands

Called Xisha in Chinese, Hoang Sa in Vietnamese
Claimed by China, Taiwan and Vietnam
More than 30 islands and reefs, including two main groups: the Amphitrite group and the Crescent group
Woody (Yongxing) Island, the largest island in the archipelago, now hosts the City of Sansha with a small community of fishermen, civil servants and soldiers
Vietnam maintains 'historical claims' to the Paracels without physical presence there
It controlled several islands within the Crescent group, where it had a weather station, until 1974, when after a brief but bloody clash China gained control over the entire archipelago

But historian Nguyen Nha, who specialises in South China Sea issues, says things have now changed.

"We have to realise that there are no more North and South, we're all Vietnamese. Politics come and go, but historical facts remain."

This change of heart is clearly visible in Vietnamese media.

National newspapers like Thanh Nien and Tuoi Tre have in recent weeks been running a series of reports including detailed accounts by witnesses on how the Paracels were taken by China by force and descriptions of heroic actions by South Vietnamese sailors.

Public meetings have been held to commemorate the battle and there are calls to recognise the "martyrdom" of the fallen soldiers and offer support to their families.

'Historical facts'

Just months ago, such moves would have been unheard of. The authorities in Hanoi have been extremely careful not to offend Vietnam's giant neighbour - and are also fully aware that nationalist sentiment can get out of hand.

Anti-China protests in which participants have shouted slogans such as "The Paracels belong to Vietnam" have been quickly dispersed in the past.

As Vietnamese media remains tightly controlled by the Communist Party, the green light to address the issue of the battle may have come from above.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung reportedly told a meeting with leading Vietnamese historians at the end of December that the government was planning activities to commemorate the 1974 event, as well as the 1979 border war with China.

He also urged to include "these historical facts" in school textbooks.

Protesters chant anti-China slogans while marching in Hanoi on 2 June 2013

The authorities have kept a firm hand on anti-China sentiment so far

Emeritus Professor Carlyle Thayer from the University of New South Wales in Australia says raising the profile of the 1974 conflict "has more to do with shoring up domestic legitimacy by undercutting the overseas Vietnamese supporters of the Saigon regime who, of course, memorialise this battle".

Ho Van Ky Thoai, a former rear admiral in the Saigon navy and one of the commanders of the 1974 battle who now resides in the United States, agrees there has been "a shift in the Vietnamese government's approach to the subject".

"They have come to realise the clear danger of being swallowed by China. Unfortunately, it is years too late," he said, adding that the best the Vietnamese government could do is to quickly give the South Vietnamese soldiers the highest recognition they deserved.

Sceptics also point out that this might be just a patriotic card cleverly played by Vietnamese leaders to distract the public from problems such as the economy and rampant corruption.

Some of the largest corruption trials involving high-ranking party officials are slated to take place this month, and as the Lunar New Year approaches complaints about living standards are once again surfacing.

But for many this new move is an indication of Vietnam's attempt to consolidate its territorial claims in the face of China's increasingly assertive activities in the South China Sea.

"Vietnamese people are facing a danger of aggression and humiliation [by China] like never before in the South China Sea," warns historian Nguyen Nha.

New fishing rules by China that took effect on 1 January require foreign fishing ships to obtain approval to enter waters it has placed under the jurisdiction of the Hainan provincial government, including those surrounding the Paracels.

Experts say the rules are likely to create incidents with Vietnamese fishermen who consider the waters around the islands their traditional fishing grounds and regularly accuse Chinese authorities of harassment.

Vietnamese media have raised the tone of their reports on China's new fishing regulation, which Hanoi has called "illegal and invalid".

But "it is the reported instigation of Vietnamese authorities encouraging Vietnamese fishermen to fish in the waters around the Paracels that could lead to conflict", warns Prof Thayer.

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woensdag 14 mei 2014