HANOI, Vietnam (AP) Vietnam and China traded accusations Tuesday over who was the aggressor in a clash that led to the sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat in the South China Sea, sharpening tensions already dangerously high after China moved an oil rig into the disputed waters. Hanoi accused a Chinese vessel of ramming the […]
HANOI — Vietnam insists that China stops offshore oil exploration in the South China Sea within Vietnam’s territorial waters, the country’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh told Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the phone on Thursday. The Vietnamese Foreign Ministry said on Friday the minister had criticized Beijing’s installation of […]
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 […]
The crews from the Vietnamese and Chinese coast guards shook hands and took photos as they met last month, sharing platters of fruit and raising their glasses for a toast. Now, they are in a tense standoff in the South China Sea. “The two sides were very happy and united,” Lt. Colonel Phan Duy Cuong, […]
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 […]
The escalating stand-offs between China and Vietnam, and between Beijing and Manila, will push Southeast Asian nations to build up their maritime capabilities, resulting in heightened tensions in the South China Sea, observers say. The nations were also likely to embrace a stronger United States presence in the region to Beijing’s dismay, they said, pointing […]
Manila: The Philippines lodged a strong protest against China on Tuesday over allegations by Filipino fishermen that the Chinese coastguard had attacked them with water cannon near a disputed shoal. The foreign department summoned the Chinese charge d’affaires to receive the formal protest over the January 27 incident at the Scarborough Shoal, said department spokesman […]