heating up towards war PRC sank Viet ship Huat Ah!

http://opinion.inquirer.net/75069/chinese-fleet-gang-up-sinks-viet-boat


Chinese fleet gang-up sinks Viet boat
12:20 am | Friday, May 30th, 2014
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The standoff between China and Vietnam over a Chinese oil rig parked starting May 1 in disputed waters in the South China Sea took a violent turn on Tuesday when an armada of 40 Chinese fishing boats clashed with a smaller Vietnamese flotilla. In the lopsided encounter, a Vietnamese boat was rammed and subsequently sank, throwing 10 fisherman overboard. The fishermen were rescued by other Vietnamese boats, and there were no injuries.
But the ramming escalated the tensions over the deployment of the Chinese oil rig inside what Vietnam claims as its exclusive economic zone. Vietnam has been accusing China of ramming into or firing water cannon at Vietnamese vessels trying to get close to the rig, which is surrounded by Chinese fishing vessels and Coast Guard ships. The latest incident was the first time a Vietnamese boat had been sunk.
Each country accused the other as the aggressor. A report aired over Vietnam’s state-run television network claimed that the latest incident took place at about 31.5 kilometers southwest of the oil rig. Hanoi accused a Chinese vessel of ramming the wooden Vietnamese boat on Monday then fleeing the scene.
“I call this an act of attempted murder because the Chinese sank a Vietnamese fishing boat and then ran away,” said Tran Van Linh, president of the fisheries association in the Vietnamese port city of Danang. “We vehemently protest this perverse, brutal and inhuman action by the Chinese side.” The Associated Press quoted Linh as saying that about 40 steel vessels surrounded a group of smaller wooden Vietnamese fishing vessels on Monday afternoon, then one rammed into the Vietnamese boat.
On the other hand, China’s state-run news agency Xinhua called Vietnam the aggressor, saying that the Vietnamese fishing boat capsized when it rammed a Chinese vessel from the Chinese province of Hainan. China has also accused
Vietnam of interfering with and attempting to disrupt the operations of the oil rig, which was set up by the state-run China National Offshore Oil Co.
In Beijing the Chinese foreign ministry said a Vietnamese boat had forced its way into the area around the rig and rammed into a Chinese ship. “I think the fact that this incident happened at all shows that Vietnam’s illegitimate and illegal harassment and sabotage of China’s regular operations are futile and will only hurt their interests,” the foreign ministry spokesperson said.
The latest encounter had the appearance of a schoolyard bullying spree, familiar to most, in which a pack of* bullies pummel and kick around a weaker schoolmate until he crumples to the ground, to the jeers of his tormentors. Vietnam has been accusing China of similar behavior, in the process damaging several boats and injuring a number of surveillance officials. But China accuses Vietnam of doing the same.
The Chinese ship that rammed the Vietnamese boat had a steel hull, according to Vietnamese officials. As many as 80 ships of China, including some from its Coast Guard, now patrol around the oil rig, creating a wide perimeter. Warships from both countries, including five Chinese frigates, have been observed from the outside perimeter, according to US officials.
The occurrence of these encounters, especially the sinking of the Vietnamese fishing boat, has alarmed Adm. Samuel Locklear, the US military commander in the Pacific. Speaking on the last day (May 23) of the World Economic Forum on East Asia held in Manila, he warned that the risk of miscalculation that could trigger a wider conflict in a tense territorial standoff between Vietnam and China was high, and urged the two countries to exercise restraint.
Locklear said he had “serious concerns” about the three-week standoff between Vietnam and China near the disputed Paracel Islands, and called on them to resolve conflicts on the basis of international law. He also called for compromise in Asia’s worsening maritime territorial disputes.
While the dispute between China and Vietnam was simmered over the oil rig, tension was escalated between Japan and China last week as they traded accusations over the close encounters of their military aircraft in the East China Sea. The Wall Street Journal reported that each side accused the other of acting provocatively in two encounters, during one of which the aircraft were just 30 meters apart, according to the Japanese side.
Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said last Sunday that the first encounter happened at about 11 a.m. Saturday between a Chinese Su-27 fighter plane and a Japanese
OP-3C surveillance plane, with the two planes 50 meters apart, according to the WSJ. An hour later, a Chinese Su-27 approached within 30 meters of a Japanese Air Force YS-11EB.
Both encounters took place over international waters in an area where the two countries have established overlapping air-defense zones, Onodera said. He accused Beijing of acting in a “bizarre” fashion, saying: “We think such behavior is very dangerous and could lead to an accident.”
China’s defense ministry confirmed on Sunday that it scrambled military jets on Saturday morning, and said Tokyo was to blame for operating near joint military exercises that China was holding with Russia

A war is unlikely as both sides will refrain from such an act, but the tensions are drawing international attention. Below is report on US view of the situation.

Cheers!

http://thanhniennews.com/politics/us-senator-condemns-chinas-actions-in-east-sea-26715.html

US Senator condemns China’s actions in East Sea

Wednesday, May 28, 2014 17:42

Visiting U.S. Senator Ben Cardin attended a press conference in Hanoi on Wednesday to express U.S. opposition to China’s unilateral action in the East Sea, and that the recent attack of Vietnamese fishing boat was “unacceptable.”
“We think the situation is very tense and we have urged China to take actions to de-escalate rather than to provoke through the presence of their military vessels, and their interference with maritime activities,” Cardin said.
Cardin announced that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on which he serves has considered a resolution that condemns the use of force and advocates a peaceful diplomatic resolution to competing territorial and maritime claims.
The resolution has been approved by the Committee and is expected to be discussed on the Senate floor, shortly.
During his Vietnam visit, Cardin met with President Truong Tan Sang, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung, Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh and the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tran Van Hang.
While Cardin noted that the United States will take no position regarding competing territorial claims in the East Sea (known internationally as South China Sea), it does take a position against unilateral provocative actions.
The U.S. expects the countries involved in these disputes to refrain from provocative actions and hopes that they will de-escalate the situation and negotiate through international forums, such as those provided under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Cardin also called on concerned countries to expedite ASEAN’s efforts to formulate a Code of Conduct, and employ peaceful mechanisms to resolve international differences.
When asked to comment about the attack of a Chinese ship on a Vietnamese fishing boat off the coast of Vietnam earlier this week, Cardin said the action was “obviously unacceptable” and jeopardized not just property but human life.
Since the beginning of May, a number of Vietnamese fishing boats have been chased, rammed and damaged by the Chinese vessels. More seriously, Chinese forces have attacked, beaten and threatened the lives of Vietnamese fishermen.
In the latest incident, at around 4 pm on May 26, a Chinese ship rammed and sank a fishing boat piloted by captain Dang Van Nhan, 40, of the central city of Da Nang.
Cardin is among six U.S. lawmakers who on May 9 criticized China for its "deeply troubling" actions in disputed areas of the South China Sea, and urged passage of legislation that seeks peaceful solutions to rising maritime tensions.
"China's recent movement of an oil drilling rig escorted by military and other ships into disputed waters in the South China Sea off the coast of Vietnam -- and the subsequent aggressive tactics used by Chinese ships, including the ramming of Vietnamese ships -- is deeply troubling," the senators said in a statement.
"These actions threaten the free flow of global commerce in a vital region."

Considering the fact that the Vietnam destroyed so many of China's factories and killing some of it's people there, sinking one small Viet fishing boat is already giving them lots of face.

Inquirer dot net is a Pinoy-centric news portal, take its editorial articles with a heavy pinch of salt.

How can Vietnam win? Anyway they already been through this once...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnson_South_Reef_Skirmish

As far as the chinese foreign ministry is concern, the us senator can shaft his opinions up his own anus, of course in more diplomatic statement.

Agoraphobic said:

A war is unlikely as both sides will refrain from such an act, but the tensions are drawing international attention. Below is report on US view of the situation.

Cheers!

Click to expand...

Fucking peasants should strongly compell their coward govt to the necessary war or revolt their chicken government. This is called Democracy. Haha!

obama.bin.laden said:

Fucking peasants should strongly compell their coward govt to the necessary war or revolt their chicken government. This is called Democracy. Haha!

Click to expand...

No rational person will wish for war, but tensions are high and so are nationalistic emotions. If Vietnam and PRC were to fight, I'd say Vietnam has little chance against such a big and powerful adversary as PRC (who doesn't want Vietnam, just the oil) but nevertheless, Vietnam isn't going to be easy meat for PRC either, they are very determined. (Below article)

Cheers!

http://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Eco...-Hawksley-Vietnam-is-no-easy-target-for-China

May 29, 2014 7:00 pm JST

Humphrey Hawksley: Vietnam is no easy target for China

HUMPHREY HAWKSLEY

China's recent decision to force a showdown with Vietnam in waters around the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea tempers an argument that has gained momentum in recent months -- that is, with the growing assertiveness of Russia in Ukraine and China in East Asia, a weakening U.S. is being challenged by increasingly confident authoritarian governments.
Since late last year, Russia has annexed Crimea and encouraged separatism in eastern Ukraine. China meanwhile has tested the resolve of Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines and now Vietnam with its territorial claims in the East and South China seas.
The latest and most serious confrontation began in early May, when China brought an oil drilling platform inside Vietnam's 200-mile (321km) Exclusive Economic Zone and moored it about 240km off the country's coastline, roughly midway between Vietnam and the Paracel Islands. The islands are claimed by Hanoi but controlled by Beijing. China's refusal to remove the rig caused outrage in Vietnam, with mobs targeting Chinese factories and workers. The riots clearly had some level of state endorsement -- although analysts believe it unlikely the widening of protests to include non-Chinese workers and factories was part of the plan.
The oil rig is protected by a cordon of Chinese vessels, including naval warships, which is being challenged by the Vietnamese. Tensions increased with the recent collision of a Chinese vessel and a Vietnamese fishing boat. The fishing boat sank and Hanoi blames the Chinese. What exactly happened is difficult to ascertain, but China maintains that drilling will continue because, in its words, it "cannot afford to lose an inch of territory."
Diversionary tactic
China's claim to the South China Sea forms a horseshoe that follows the coastlines of Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan. It covers some 90% of the 10 million sq. km through which half the world's shipping tonnage passes. Beijing's strong-arm policy to bolster its territorial claims roughly coincides with Washington's 2011 announcement of an "Asian pivot" to shift more U.S. military focus toward the Asia-Pacific.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent visit to Shanghai, meanwhile, comes amid rising tensions between Russia and the West, conjuring up the prospect of new and troubling alliances between China and like-minded powers on the global stage. With such reinforcement, China could more rapidly develop its blue-water navy to balance American power in the region -- and possibly beyond.
But if that is the thinking in Beijing, why take on Vietnam, the only other significant authoritarian government in Southeast Asia?
The answer may lie in China's short-term need to satisfy its nationalistic urges. This overrides the longer-term and more difficult task of becoming a responsible superpower -- and it sees Vietnam as an easy target.
While almost all other regional contenders have military alliances with the U.S., Vietnam has none with any government. No country is obliged to come to its aid if attacked, and it is highly unlikely that any would. Beijing can show it means business in the South China Sea by flexing its military muscle to intimidate Vietnam, while avoiding direct, high-level confrontations with Japan and the U.S.
To many in Beijing, Vietnam is merely a troublesome vassal state that on occasion has repelled Chinese incursions on its northern border, but has yet to learn how to live in the shadow of its much stronger neighbor.
The Chinese may have a point.
In recent years, China's development has forged ahead, in contrast to Vietnam's more lackluster performance. According to the World Bank, between 2009 and 2012 China's per-capita gross domestic product rose from $3,749 to $6,091, while Vietnam's spluttered along, rising from $1,232 to just $1,755. Likewise, China's infant mortality improved from 15 to 12 per 1,000 live births, while Vietnam's barely moved from 19 to 18 over the same period.
Vietnam also relies heavily on Chinese trade, which is worth some $40 billion a year. The relative stability and growth of East Asia have made both countries richer. But China -- partly through sheer numbers -- has emerged as an impatient, turbocharged power that can shake the world stage, while Vietnam has barely made a ripple.
The last Sino-Vietnamese alliance was forged between two revolutionary stalwarts, Mao Zedong and Ho Chi Minh, and lasted from France's humiliating 1954 defeat at Dien Bien Phu through America's flight from Saigon in 1975.
But a year earlier, in 1974, China seized the Paracel Islands from South Vietnam, and refused to return them after the North Vietnamese victory. Beijing has now set up the Sansha prefecture on Woody Island, or Yongxing Dao, in the Paracels, from which the islands of the South China Sea are technically governed.
In 1988, China attacked Vietnamese positions on the Spratly Islands, 710km to the southeast, killing 60 sailors.
Bilateral relations deteriorated further due to China's support for the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. As well as carrying out genocidal policies, the regime led by Pol Pot launched cross-border raids into Vietnam. Much to China's fury, Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1978, ending Khmer Rouge rule. The next year, China sent its troops across Vietnam's northern border. But it was badly beaten by an army with decades of experience fighting and winning against stronger, richer powers.
That same famously stubborn Vietnamese determination may again be coming into play.
In 2009, Vietnam placed a $3.2 billion order with Russia for six Kilo class diesel-electric submarines equipped with with 275-kilometer range cruise missiles. The first has already been delivered, with the remainder due by 2016, together with 12 Su-30 fighter jets.
Pride vs. economics
In Vietnamese military academies, the South China Sea remains at the top of the conflict syllabus and if it comes to a choice between the economy and protecting its territory and independence, the government's track record regarding which it will sacrifice is clear.
Vietnam's navy remains minuscule compared with China's. But, on paper, Vietnam's army was similarly outmatched against the firepower of France and the U.S. -- and for that matter, China itself. Its greatest asset, as American troops discovered, is a formidable fighting spirit: Vietnam has been prepared to fight invaders to every last man and woman.
"The South China Sea may prove to be China's Dien Bien Phu," warns one Vietnamese diplomat. "And it will be us, not the Americans, who stop Beijing's bullying in East Asia."

Agoraphobic said:

No rational person will wish for war, but tensions are high and so are nationalistic emotions. If Vietnam and PRC were to fight, I'd say Vietnam has little chance against such a big and powerful adversary as PRC (who doesn't want Vietnam, just the oil) but nevertheless, Vietnam isn't going to be easy meat for PRC either, they are very determined. (Below article)

Cheers!

Click to expand...

On land, the Viet army may provide some resistance to PLA army. But when it comes to navy, the PLA navy easily hammered the viet navy back to Ho Chih Minh era within 28mins, as illustrated during the 1988 and 1974 Sino-Viet navy conflicts.

Meantime, the viet could only played faked weak chicken day in day out infront of international media.

The viet had the previous determination & guts to fight the French, Japanese and the Americans yet no wisdom to co-exist peacefully within the Indochina neighbourhood.

Yes, for infantry type war, the Viets kicked mighty USA out, and is very revered (we laughed when our PC told us we were training to face a possible invasion by Vietnamese forces during NS) but in the seas, they will be no match against PRC without USA (who may be reluctant to tangle with such a lucrative business partner). The only country that can match PRC in naval battle is possibly Japan. who also has territorial dispute with PRC and may be looking for allies to associate with in this cause. Maybe the smaller Asian countries should start ganging up together to face up to PRC. Alone, they'd all be fucked.

Cheers!

devilblue said:

On land, the Viet army may provide some resistance to PLA army. But when it comes to navy, the PLA navy easily hammered the viet navy back to Ho Chih Minh era within 28mins, as illustrated during the 1988 and 1974 Sino-Viet navy conflicts.

Meantime, the viet could only played faked weak chicken day in day out infront of international media.

The viet had the previous determination & guts to fight the French, Japanese and the Americans yet no wisdom to co-exist peacefully within the Indochina neighbourhood.

Click to expand...

China has pissed off every country sharing it's borders. Their arrogant claims to everything under the sun will only gain them more enemies. While the US has it's own motive for opposing china they are still much preferable to a world under the red flag

Rational is not universally right.

Blind adoption of blanket peace solves no problem.

Only delaying crisis for a bigger damage.

To them money more important. Where got time for war?

If it was the other way around, then I would worry.