HONG KONG — Territorial disputes between China and Vietnam have triggered deadly anti-China protests in Vietnam this week. Thousands of Vietnamese rioted against an oil rig China placed in waters that Vietnam considers its own. On Friday, protests took place in the Philippines, which is also entangled in territorial disputes with Beijing. China’s move to […]
What’s the difference between an oil rig and a naval base or an aircraft carrier? Very little, politically, in the eyes of China. The waters of the South China Sea have witnessed a growing set of confrontations between Chinese and Vietnamese maritime forces as China deploys its deep-sea oil drilling rig, Haiyang Shiyou 981, to […]
At least 21 people were killed as anti-China riots in southern Vietnam escalated and spread to the center of the country on Thursday. A doctor in Ha Tinh province described five of the dead as Vietnamese workers and others as Chinese. He said they were among roughly 100 people sent to his hospital, Reuters reports. […]
Southeast Asian nations look helpless to counter Beijing’s growing assertiveness in the South China Sea—but it would be misguided to think China isn’t wary of its own political toll, writes Andrew Browne in this week’s China’s World column: Nothing seems to illustrate the impotence of Southeast Asian nations more than their glacial progress toward a […]
BEIJING–A Vietnam-China standoff over an oil rig exemplifies only a part of the interlocking interests–from the resources under its seabed to the trade routes on its surface–that trouble the waters of the South China Sea. The sea is believed to contain significant resources, but disputes over its islands, reefs and atolls–control of which gives the […]