Vietnamese police forcibly dispersed an anti-China rally yesterday and arrested at least 10 people, including journalists, after a series of protests over tensions in the South China Sea.
Plainclothes police moved in to detain the demonstrators almost immediately after they gathered within sight of the Chinese embassy in Hanoi, a reporter observed.
An unprecedented series of protests — which are not common in authoritarian Vietnam — have taken place peacefully in Hanoi on the past five weekends over an escalating maritime dispute in the South China Sea.
China and Vietnam have been at loggerheads over the potentially oil-rich Spratly (南沙群島) and Paracel (西沙群島) island groups, which straddle vital commercial shipping lanes and are also claimed in whole or part by Taiwan, Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia.
While Vietnamese authorities -allowed the earlier public protests as a means of expressing displeasure with Beijing, analysts said, they are now reining in the demonstrators after holding talks with China to resolve the dispute.
The arrests came about two weeks before the National Assembly convenes after nationwide one-party elections in May.
The assembly is expected to confirm another five-year term for Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, who is believed to be supported by the powerful security apparatus.
Protesters struggled yesterday morning as the security men led them onto a public bus, which had been on standby, and took them to a police station.
“We did not do anything!” they shouted.
Among those detained was a Vietnamese cameraman for Japan’s NHK television, who his company said was later released. The Associated Press reported that one of its Vietnamese cameramen was held, but freed after questioning.
A Vietnamese working for another foreign news organization was also detained in the round-up, but was later seen leaving the police station, media sources said.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, a US-based watchdog, said it was “troubled” by reports that journalists had been detained. It said they were “being punished for just doing their jobs.”
Police refused to comment, but a witness saw several protesters being released from the station later yesterday.
The first rally last month drew close to 300 people, but after that, the numbers dwindled to about 100. Some protesters felt their actions were “in vain” after China and Vietnam held talks on June 25 in Beijing, one activist said.
At the bilateral meeting, both sides agreed to resolve their territorial disputes peacefully “through negotiations and friendly consultations,” state media from both countries said.
The official Vietnam News said Beijing and Hanoi “also laid stress on the need to steer public opinion in the correct direction.”
That meant Vietnam must rein in the demonstrators, while China should control its media, whose comments have upset Vietnam, said Carl Thayer, a long-time Vietnam analyst based in Australia.
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