An unrepentant China yesterday defended its actions in disputed Asian waters amid warnings of war with Vietnam, as Washington voiced “serious concern” after riots left two Chinese workers dead and more than 100 injured.
Vietnam has been shaken by its worst anti-China unrest in decades following Beijing’s deployment of an oil rig in contested South China Sea waters, which triggered ramming incidents involving Vietnamese and Chinese vessels.
As tensions mounted, a top Chinese general warned that Beijing “cannot afford to lose an inch” of what it considers its territory.
Photo: EPA
China has accused Hanoi of “connivance” with protesters who have targeted hundreds of foreign-owned factories in Vietnam, as long-simmering enmity between the communist rivals boiled over.
Two Chinese citizens were killed and more than 100 injured, Beijing’s foreign ministry said, expressing “serious concern.”
China’s state-run Global Times turned up the rhetoric with a strident editorial supporting the use of “non-peaceful” measures against Vietnam and the Philippines.
“The South China Sea disputes should be settled in a peaceful manner, but that doesn’t mean China can’t resort to non-peaceful measures in the face of provocation from Vietnam and the Philippines,” it said.
“Many people believe that a forced war would convince some countries of China’s sincerely peaceful intentions,” the paper added.
An Agence France-Presse photographer who was taken by Vietnamese authorities to the scene of the maritime standoff saw dozens of Chinese ships, including naval vessels, facing off against Vietnamese ships near the oil rig.
Whenever Chinese vessels approached, the Vietnamese ships broadcast messages saying: “We are warning you — you are entering Vietnamese sea waters, violating our exclusive economic zone and the law of the sea.”
At one point, what appeared to be a Chinese surveillance plane flew overhead. On land, calm seemed to have returned to flashpoint industrial zones across Vietnam yesterday after riot police were deployed to restore order.
Meanwhile, US Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday “underscored the United States’ serious concern about China’s unilateral actions in waters disputed with Vietnam” at a meeting with a top Chinese general at the White House, his office said in a statement.
“The vice president reaffirmed that while the United States does not take a position on the competing territorial claims, no nation should take provocative steps to advance claims over disputed areas in a manner that undermines peace and stability in the region,” the statement said.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) reacted frostily to Biden’s comment, saying it amounted to “intentionally taking a biased position.”
General Fang Fenghui (房峰輝), chief of the general staff of the People’s Liberation Army, said Beijing would continue to operate the rig.
“We do not make trouble. We do not create trouble. But we are not afraid of trouble,” he said.
“For the territory, which has been passed down by our ancestors into the hands of our generation, we cannot afford to lose an inch,” he said.
The general also pointed the finger at US President Batack Obama’s strategic shift toward Asia, saying it had encouraged countries such as Vietnam, Japan and the Philippines to make trouble with Beijing.
Additional reporting by Reuters
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
WARNING: China should stop engaging in actions that undermine regional peace and stability, as it would only build resentment among people across the Strait, the CGA said China has deployed more than 100 navy, coast guard and other vessels in waters from the Yellow Sea to the South China Sea and the western Pacific since US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met in Beijing, National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday. “In this part of the world, #China is the one & only PROBLEM wrecking the #StatusQuo & threatening regional peace & stability,” Wu wrote on X. In a separate post, he said Beijing was coercing Taiwan’s maritime domain, calling it illegal and provocative, after the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) expelled a
RSS