Vietnam blocks fresh anti-China protests

BEIJING, China – (UPDATED) Vietnamese security forces stifled fresh protests Sunday over China’s plans to drill for oil in contested waters, as Beijing sent 5 ships to help evacuate its nationals from Vietnam following deadly mass riots last week.

Hundreds of security personnel swarmed over streets leading to the sprawling Chinese embassy in Hanoi, restricting access to the neighbourhood and other suspected protest sites.

China said Sunday, May 18, it has suspended some plans for bilateral exchanges with Vietnam following deadly anti-Chinese violence there, as Hanoi sought to quell protests over a Chinese oil rig in disputed waters.

The unrest in Vietnam has so far led to the deaths of two Chinese nationals and evacuation of more than 3,000, including 16 who were “critically injured,” the official news agency Xinhua reported earlier.

Blogs by civil society groups involved in the protest call said activists were detained in several areas around the country or prevented from leaving their homes.

The violence was “damaging the atmosphere and conditions for exchanges and cooperation between China and Vietnam,” foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a statement on the ministry’s website.

“The Chinese side as of today…suspended part of its bilateral exchange plans,” Hong said, without specifying what the plans entailed.

“China will see how the situation develops and look into taking further steps,” he said.

The foreign ministry last week accused Hanoi of “connivance” with anti-China protesters who torched dozens of factories, and urged it to punish perpetrators and offer compensation for damages.

The violence, which has targeted foreign-owned enterprises, marks the worst anti-China unrest in Vietnam in decades.

It erupted after Beijing this month deployed an oil rig in a disputed area in the South China Sea, inflaming long-simmering hostility between the two communist neighbours, who have fought territorial skirmishes in the past.

Vietnam and other Asian nations have expressed growing concern at China’s increasingly assertive moves to assert its maritime claims.

Worker protests broke out last week in 22 of Vietnam’s 63 provinces, authorities there said, with angry crowds setting fire to foreign-owned factories and enterprises believed to be linked to China or which employed Chinese staff.

The violence in Vietnam has further inflamed the situation, with China accusing Hanoi of a role in the unrest.

The enterprises targeted in the violence included Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean and Singaporean businesses.

It was not clear why non-Chinese businesses were hit, but there is growing resentment in Vietnam over a perceived rise in Chinese workers taking jobs from locals, in addition to reported unhappiness over working conditions with some foreign employers.

China’s Southeast Asian neighbours have voiced growing alarm over Beijing’s increasingly assertive claim to nearly all of the South China Sea, a stance buttressed by a rapid build-up of the Chinese military. – Rappler.com