Vietnam is to send a senior Communist Party of Vietnam official to China this week to try to rebuild relations battered by Beijing’s decision to deploy an oil rig in waters claimed by Hanoi in May, the party said yesterday in a statement.
The movement of the rig by China triggered a furious reaction in Hanoi and led to speculation that the secretive government might be reconsidering its relationship with Beijing, perhaps favoring a tilt to the US, as other Southeast Asian nations locked in territorial disputes with China have.
However, several analysts have said the government was split between those favoring a strategic shift to Washington and a faction believing that China, its ideological ally, giant neighbor and vital economic partner, can be accommodated, despite Beijing’s stated claims on large parts of the South China Sea that Hanoi believes are its own, as do Taiwan and others.
Yesterday’s statement announcing the envoy’s visit — set for today and tomorrow — was notably short of the angry rhetoric that Hanoi used during the crisis, which saw vessels from both nations sparring close to the rig before it was towed out of Vietnamese waters last month.
It said politburo member Le Hong Anh’s visit, at the invitation of China, was aimed at ensuring there would not be a repeat of the oil rig incident and to “promote the healthy, stable and long-term development of relations between the two parties and states.”
It reiterated its regret for deadly anti-Chinese riots that broke out during the crisis and pledged to ensure the safety of Chinese workers and companies in the country.
Taiwanese-owned firms suffered losses during the violence, due to mistaken identity.
Le Hong Anh is ranked No. 5 in the politburo behind the party chief, the president, the prime minister and the chairman of the national assembly. He is to be the highest-level official to have contact with China after Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi (楊潔篪) visited Hanoi in June, a trip that produced no result.
China refused to listen to Vietnamese complaints after it moved the rig and pulled it out on its own terms.
Anti-Chinese sentiment is widespread in Vietnam, and is often tapped into by the country’s dissident movement, which criticizes the government for its allegedly subservient relationship to its communist brethren next door.
Former Vietnamese ambassador to China Nguyen Trong Vinh, who is well-known for his hard line toward Beijing, was skeptical about the talks.
“There will be nothing,” he said. “China will never compromise. Their removal of the oil rig was only temporary. They will never abandon their wicked ambitions of taking a monopoly over the East Sea,” using the Vietnamese term for the South China Sea.
Nguyen Quang A, an economist who often speaks out against the government, said he welcomed the talks, but was concerned that Beijing might be trying to persuade Hanoi to drop its threat of taking international legal action against China’s territorial claims.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia