South China Sea Crisis - Nam considers DRAFT; China emphasizes peaceful means
http://wcfcourier.com/news/world/asi...7ead04687.html
Chinese Official: Please read your history.Hundreds of Vietnamese hold anti-China protest
Hundreds of Vietnamese staged an anti-China protest Sunday for the second week in a row, a day ahead of the country's planned live ammunition naval drill amid a heated spat over territory in the South China Sea.
Waving Vietnamese flags and signs reading "Stop Violating Vietnam's Territory," a couple hundred demonstrators moved from the Chinese Embassy through the capital's streets surrounded by dozens of police and security forces. Hundreds more also protested in southern Ho Chi Minh City.
Protests are rare in Communist-run Vietnam and are typically quashed quickly by police.
Hanoi has responded feverishly following two incidents in the past month in which it accuses Chinese boats of halting Vietnamese hired vessels from conducting oil and gas exploration in waters off its central coast.
Vietnam says the incidents occurred within 200 nautical miles of its shores, within the economic exclusion area guaranteed by international law. It accuses Chinese boats of cutting cables used to conduct seismic surveys on vessels hired by state-run PetroVietnam.
But China responded harshly last week saying the latest clash occurred near the disputed Spratly islands, claimed by both countries along with several other Asian nations. It says the Vietnamese hired boat endangered Chinese fishermen's lives.
Vietnam's military exercise is expected to total nine hours Monday off the country's central coast. Boats have been warned to stay out of the area during the drill, which appears to be an apparent response to the flare-up. It was the first time Vietnam has issued such an alert about maritime exercises.
A newspaper published by China's ruling Communist Party ran an editorial Saturday warning Vietnam not provoke its much larger northern neighbor.
"If Vietnam insists on making trouble, thinking that the more trouble it makes, the more benefits it gains, then we truly wish to remind those in Vietnam who determine policy to please read your history," the editorial concluded. China once ruled over Vietnam for 1,000 years.
Vietnam and China have a long history of maritime scraps in disputed parts of the South China Sea near the Spratly and Paracel islands, which are teeming with fish and believed rich in oil and gas reserves.
The United States, which has said the South China Sea is in its national interest because of key international shipping lanes, has encouraged a diplomatic process to keep regional tensions from flaring.
Vietnamese: That we cream you every time?
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/05e83b34-9...44feab49a.html
Vietnam seeks US support in China dispute
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking...ry_679306.htmlVietnam has called on the US and other nations to help resolve the escalating territorial disputes in the resource-rich South China Sea, in a move likely to anger Beijing, which opposes what it sees as outside interference.
Tensions between China and Vietnam continued to rise over the weekend, ahead of live-fire drills planned by Vietnam’s navy on Monday on an islet around 20 miles from the coast of central Vietnam, which Hanoi described as “routine”.
EDITOR’S CHOICE
Stirred by a number of maritime confrontations with China over recent weeks, hundreds of Vietnamese took part in rare anti-China protests on Sunday for the second straight weekend, with the usually draconian police allowing the demonstrations to take place.
“China is running an information campaign to blind people,” said Pham Gia Minh, a 55-year-old investment consultant who attended a protest outside the Chinese embassy in Hanoi. “We have to let people understand that we want peace but when the aggressor comes we will stand up to them.”
In addition to China and Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan claim some or all of the territory in the contested area of the South China Sea, which is believed to contain vast oil and gas reserves and incorporates key trade routes and abundant fish stocks.
The Vietnamese government has ratcheted up its rhetoric in recent weeks amid growing public disquiet over perceived maritime bullying by China, which dominated Vietnam for 1000 years and fought a brief but bloody border war against it in 1979. At the weekend Vietnam’s foreign ministry said that it would “welcome” efforts by the US and other nations to help resolve the South China Sea dispute and maintain peace and stability.
Such sentiments are unlikely to go down well in Beijing, which insists that the long-running row over the South China Sea must be resolved on a purely bilateral basis.
China reacted angrily last July when Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, insisted that the South China Sea was of strategic importance to the US and offered to act as a mediator.
The US said on Friday that is was “troubled” by the latest developments in the South China Sea, with Mark Toner, a state department spokesman, warning that “shows of force” only increase tensions, which have been on the rise in recent weeks.
Hanoi and Beijing have traded accusations of infringement of sovereignty and harassment of their fishing and oil exploration vessels and China has also clashed with the Philippines in a similar fashion.
“China’s behaviour has gone from assertive to aggressive,” said Ian Storey, a fellow at the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore and an expert on maritime security in the South China Sea.
In the latest incident, last Thursday, Vietnam claimed that, for the second time in recent weeks, Chinese boats had trespassed onto its territory and deliberately tried to cut undersea cables deployed by a ship hired by PetroVietnam, the state oil and gas monopoly. China dismissed the allegations, claiming that the boats were fishing in its sovereign waters when they were “illegally chased away by armed Vietnamese ships,” endangering the fishermen’s lives.
The Chinese government remained silent on Sunday, but Hanoi’s latest move is likely to infuriate Beijing as China insists its territorial disputes in the South China Sea must be dealt with bilaterally.
A year ago, Beijing decisively rejected remarks by Hillary Clinton in which the US secretary of state called peace in the region a US national interest and called for a multilateral approach in resolving the disputes.
A regional security expert at National Defense University in Beijing called Hanoi’s latest move a provocation. “This is calculated to provoke a reaction in China which they can then dismiss as aggressive,” said the expert who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak to foreign media.
The growing tension in the South China Sea also triggered angry reactions among nationalist Chinese on the internet.
”If a single shell falls into Chinese waters, including disputed waters, we should shoot to kill. Can’t we do what North Korea can?” wrote one user on Tiexue, an online bulletin board popular with military enthusiasts and nationalist web users, in reaction to Vietnam’s plans for naval exercises in the area on Monday.
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Basically...Vietnam to hold live-fire drill amid China dispute
HANOI - VIETNAM is set to hold live-fire naval drills on Monday in the South China Sea, as tensions with Beijing reach their highest levels in years over an escalating maritime dispute.
The neighbouring nations are at loggerheads over sovereignty of the potentially oil-rich Paracel and Spratly archipelagos and surrounding waters, where recent confrontations between their ships have sparked a war of words.
A Vietnamese naval officer told AFP that the six hours of live-fire exercises would be held around Hon Ong island, about 40km off Quang Nam province in central Vietnam.
The officer declined to give the reason for the night drill or say how many vessels would be involved, but foreign ministry spokesman Nguyen Phuong Nga said the exercises were part of routine annual training.
The drills will be held in the area claimed as Vietnam's exclusive economic zone, where Hanoi last month accused Chinese surveillance vessels of cutting the exploration cables of an oil survey ship, causing tensions to rise sharply.
On Thursday Vietnam alleged a similar incident in the zone, saying a Chinese fishing boat rammed the cables of another oil survey ship in its waters, describing it as a 'premeditated' attack. Beijing countered by warning Vietnam to halt all activities that it says violate China's sovereignty in the disputed area. The United States said it was 'troubled' by tensions triggered by the maritime border dispute, calling for a 'peaceful resolution'. -- AFP
1. China cuts Vietnamese surveillance cable with...boats...in a region that both claim as their own...while other claimants are not saying much.
2. Vietnamese foreign ministry protests, Vietnamese people protests
3. Vietnamese foreign ministry asked for US help
4. Vietnamese navy holds LIVE FIRE Exercise
5. Vietnamese foreign ministry say the naval exercise is ROUTINE
6. Chinese people want Vietnam to GTFO and that they will demolish Vietnamese arse.
7. US: peace...come on, guys...peace...
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/9bb9a...44feab49a.html
China warns over South China Sea dispute
China: If you're not a claimant, bugger off. If you're a claimant, bugger off your claims.China called on third countries to keep out of its territorial disputes while pledging not to use force, in an apparent attempt to prevent further escalation in a disagreement with Vietnam over the South China Sea.
“We hope that countries that are not parties to the South China Sea dispute truly respect the efforts of the countries concerned to resolve their disputes through consultation,” Hong Lei, foreign ministry spokesman, said on Tuesday. He added that China would not resort to force or the threat of force.
The remarks came as Vietnam conducted a live-fire naval exercise in the South China Sea, which China claims in its entirety, amid rapidly deteriorating bilateral relations. Vietnam has accused China of aggressive harassment of its oil-prospecting ships since late May, and has allowed anti-China demonstrations to take place.
At the weekend, the Vietnamese government said it would welcome efforts by the US and other nations to help resolve the territorial dispute. Two leading US senators introduced a resolution on Monday condemning China’s behaviour. Last Friday, the US state department said the US was “troubled” by the tensions. A spokesman said the US supported a collaborative diplomatic process and called on all claimants to confirm their claims to international law. China fiercely opposes any US role in settling the dispute and has insisted to settle its rivalling claims bilaterally.
Meanwhile, Nguyen Tan Dung, Vietnam’s prime minister, has issued a decree detailing who will be exempted from conscription in the event of war breaking out. Diplomats and analysts said the decree, which was published on the government’s website late on Monday and replaces a similar measure from 1982, seemed designed to send a message to the Vietnamese people and Beijing that the government was willing to stand up to China.
People who will be spared military service include senior government and Communist party officials, workers in key industries such as banknote printing and power generation and those who are the only son of a “martyr”. Vietnam’s leaders have come under growing pressure from their citizens, who have held rare protests for two weekends in a row, calling for a more robust response to China’s perceived aggression. “While the decree may seem routine, the timing is everything,” said one Asian diplomat. “The government understands the popular mood and it wants people to feel that it’s doing something.”
Separately, the Philippines says South China Sea oil blocks that it plans to offer to international exploration companies later this month are “well within” its territory, after tensions escalated over drilling rights. Two of the 15 blocks the nation plans to offer lie in areas claimed by China, according to a map it presented to the UN in 2009. China has said it will oppose any attempt to drill in waters where it claims jurisdiction.
Vietnam (trying to do something): So here's some people that will not be drafted in case China fights us.
http://www.todayonline.com/World/EDC...military-draft
Vietnam outlines terms of possible military draft
Jim Webb: Washington should condemn China (only meant that it hadn't).HANOI - Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has issued a decree about a potential military call-up amid rising tension with China over a territorial dispute.
Observers say the sabre-rattling was a signal from Vietnam that it was prepared to defend its interests.
The decree was signed on Monday, the same day that Vietnam conducted live-ammunition exercises in the sea adjacent to the waters it disputes with China.
The decree, which will take effect from Aug 1, outlines who would be exempted from military draft if war broke out.
It lists eight examples, including people holding senior positions in state organisations and those providing essential services such as lighthouse operators, reported the BBC.
Mr Carlyle Thayer, a Vietnam expert at the Australian Defence Force Academy, said the government move was meant for "two audiences".
"It's speaking to a domestic audience where it is under pressure to be shown to be taking steps to deal with China. The other is to China."
China, meanwhile, said it opposes external powers weighing in on the territorial dispute.
Prominent American senator, Mr Jim Webb, said on Monday that Washington should condemn China's use of force and facilitate talks. "We hope that countries that are not parties to the South China Sea dispute truly respect the efforts of the countries concerned to resolve their disputes through consultation," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said.
China, which claims the entire sea and its island groups, will assert its rights and interests but will not use force to resolve disputes or impede navigation, he added. Agencies
Washington: Oh... that... (thinking of something...quick~~)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13759253
China is wussing out?China 'will not use force' in South China Sea disputes
China has said it will not resort to the use of force to resolve maritime border disputes in the South China Sea.
Several Asian nations claim territory in the South China Sea, which includes important shipping routes and may contain oil and gas deposits.
On Monday, Vietnam staged live-fire drills after weeks of rising tensions between the two nations.
Vietnam has also issued a decree specifying who would be exempt from military call-up in a time of war.
"We will not resort to the use of force or the threat of force," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said.
He condemned any action that would exacerbate the dispute, and urged those involved to "do more that is beneficial to regional peace and stability".
As well as Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have rival claims in the area.
As chair of the regional grouping Asean last year, Hanoi actively promoted a multilateral approach to the problem. However, Beijing says it prefers to negotiate with individual states separately.
Responsibility
In an apparent message to China that Vietnam is willing to stand its ground, the Vietnamese government issued a decree earlier specifying which people would be exempt from military service during a time of war.
The decree lists eight examples where Vietnamese citizens would not be obliged to join a military call-up. They include people holding senior positions in state organisations and those providing essential services such as lighthouse operators.
The BBC's South East Asia correspondent Rachel Harvey says the significance lies not in the exemptions themselves but in the timing of the decree.
The news comes a day after the Vietnamese navy conducted exercises it described as routine, but which at least one Chinese newspaper interpreted as a deliberate show of force.
Vietnam is engaged in a renewed row with China over sovereignty of two groups of islands in the South China Sea; the Spratly and Paracel islands.
Tensions have escalated following two separate confrontations involving Vietnamese and Chinese boats in recent weeks.
In a thinly veiled reference to Hanoi, Mr Hong implied Vietnam was to blame for the recent row.
"Some country took unilateral actions to impair China's sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, and released groundless and irresponsible remarks with the attempt to expand and complicate the issue of the South China Seas," Mr Hong said.
"This is where the problem lies."
The US has also expressed concern about China's rising naval ambitions in the region.
On Sunday, the Japan-based carrier USS George Washington left port for deployment in the region, which is almost certain to include the South China Sea.
Originally Posted by Exarch
“When my information changes, I alter my conclusions.” ― John Maynard Keynes
