The South China Sea tangle has resurfaced due to the recent Chinese aggressive step of parking its oil rig much provocatively inside Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone. The arrival of the first deep sea rig built by China’s state-run oil industry on May 1 off the Paracel Islands angered Vietnam which dispatched Coast Guard vessels to the area, where Chinese and Vietnamese ships have since rammed each other hundreds of times.
The situation in the area has become serious with a group of Chinese ships, including navy warships, are patrolling inside and outside the 10-kilometre zone while a smaller flotilla of Vietnamese ships tries to push past them.With many Chinese helicopters flying routinely overhead,while Vietnam has three or four warships on the way to the area and both the countries have vowed not to withdraw.
Vietnam’s Foreign Minister assistant Dang Quoc Khanh said both China and Vietnam have settled disputes diplomatically in the past and would seek to do so again. But as the parking the rig in waters 250 kilometres off Vietnam’s coast infringed upon Vietnam’s sovereignty and jurisdiction ,as he said, “Vietnam strongly protests and many times has demanded China to withdraw the oil rig,” .
INDIA HONEST sees serious repercussion odue to the blunt bullying act by the Chinese authorities, while India has deep strategic and commercial interest in the area . We opted to go to the history of such conflicts in the South China Sea, by presenting few earlier description through our blogs on international subjects in Creative News Views as below to understand the subject better.
Will the Fast Changing Scenario in South China Sea Lead to.......? (Wednesday, 4 July 2012)
http://creativenewsviews.blogspot.in/2012/07/will-fast-changing-scenario-in-south.html
Vietnam’s new Law on the Sea, passed last week, has sparked a fresh round of tensions with China, about competing territory in the South China Sea. Vietnam’s National Assembly passed the law on June 21, and the reaction from China was immediate and aggressive. The law states Vietnam’s sovereignty claims of the Spratly and Paracel islands,a territory believed to be rich in oil and minerals, and also claimed by its larger neighbour China, along with several other nations.
It was on the same day the Vietnam has passed the Law on the Sea, and as the tension started mounting between two nations, the China’s Foreign Ministry, not to be found left behind, announced it had raised the level of governance on three groups of islands ..............it is the area China had snatched from South Vietnam in 1974.They are trying to do now is to make it a prefecture administration to force the territorial claim, in a afterthought to the announcement, that was made in reaction to the new law.
Then on last day of the week, in an visible emergency, the state-owned China National Offshore Oil invited foreign firms to bid on energy exploration in nine lots off the coast of Vietnam. The Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry called the move illegal and says the lots set aside by China were entirely within Vietnam's 200 nautical miles exclusive economic zone .............
the Chinese spokesman pointed : • China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and its adjacent waters,and it says Vietnam claim to islands is "null and void" • The State Council has approved the establishment of the prefecture-level city of Sansha • China opposes any military provocation committed by Vietnam.
China has begun “combat-ready” patrols in the South China Sea its defence ministry said in view of the latest escalation in tension ..........the Chinese military has already set up a normal, combat-ready patrol system in seas under our control,”. He added,“The Chinese military’s resolve and will to defend territorial sovereignty and protect our maritime rights and interests is firm and unshakable,”.
But China vows to oppose military provocation by ANY OTHER nation? In a remarks silently directed at the United States, Vietnam and the Philippines, China said it would resolutely oppose ..........."We will resolutely oppose any military provocations,".
China feels strengthening military alliances by the neighbouring nations go against regional peace...............on the military exercises recently conducted by the United States, Japan and South Korea.
Along with China and Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei also claim parts of the South China Sea. The U.S. in recent years has angered China by urging multilateral talks to resolve the overlapping claims ..........to prevent and manage disputes.
Earlier at the annual ASEAN talks in 2010 in Vietnam, US State Secretary Clinton had said that the U S had a "national interest" in open access to.....
In the latest renewed request the Philippines has asked the U S to deploy spy planes over the South China Sea to help monitor the disputed waters....... China has warned that "external forces" should not get involved...............