Berkeley, CA
18 July 2008


Vietnam assumes the president's seat at the United Nations Security Council in July 2008. This event marks a significant hope for many nations in the new world order since it means a small country like Vietnam can make certain level of impact on the outcome of international security issues. This month, Le Luong Minh being Vietnam's Ambassador to the U.N., sets the agenda to discuss for a possible U.N. sanctions against Zimbabwe and the like, and yet no mention about Vietnam's "sore," the South China Sea dispute.

It was the hope of VietWill that Vietnam would take this opportunity in which international attention is focused on it to put forth the issue of the conflict in the South China Sea, in which the Beijing government is seen to be the primary antagonist in pursuit to control the sea and the resources both proven and unproven that lies beneath Paracel and Spratly islands. However, in its first time taking the president's seat, this issue was nowhere to be seen on Vietnam's agenda.

Regretting the loss of this opportunity, VietWill sees it fit to voice its concerns this time to the world about the dangers of a Chinese hegemony in the region. At the Asia security conference in May, the U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates himself cautioned Beijing on its bullying of its neighbors which he sugarcoated using the term "coercive diplomacy". Taking advantage of the weakness of the individual Southeast Asian countries and the ASEAN's disunited response toward the issue, China is slowly but surely making gains on its quest for control of the region, despite such control is neither justified by historical title nor modern international maritime law.

China forcefully seized both the Paracel and part of the Spratly Islands from Vietnam and the Philippines in recent history, as well as drawing undefined borders around virtually all of the South China Sea. The dispute involves 5 different countries in the region, but any suggestion for a fair resolution through international arbitration, such as the International Court of Justice would be squarely rejected by Beijing. At the same time, China is in a position to threaten severe negative economic and political consequences to its neighbors if they were to take a firm stand toward its aggression. Thus, China's "coercive diplomacy" euphemistically speaking, or "playground bullying", as is the case, becomes the primary method for Beijing to take grab of the land and water resources in the South China Sea at the peril of its smaller neighbors. This bullying has recently gotten more intense with the discovery of a new Chinese nuclear submarine base on the island of Hainan, right on the doorstep of the nuclear-free zone of Southeast Asia, as designated by the 1995 Bangkok Treaty signed by 10 SEA countries.

In light of a need to call for attention to China's aggression in the South China Sea and to urge for more daring and collaborative actions from affected countries, such as the ASEAN bloc, the European Union, NATO, Japan, Korea, and the United States, VietWill will hold a demonstration in front of the United Nations office in San Francisco and New York in July in order to publicize Beijing's unjustified aggression in the South China Sea.

VietWill believes that on the occasion that Vietnam, one of the countries most affected by China's "bullyism", takes the president's seat on the U.N. Security Council, it is a timely opportunity for concerned individuals and groups to bring this matter to the forefront attention so that the day that this matter makes its way onto the U.N. agenda, and even to the ICJ would be sooner rather than later.

vietwill.org

"victimhood" is unhealthy

^
True, but nobody can deny that China's mode of action is principally that of a bully, both to nations it considers inferior (i.e. every other nation on the planet bar the U.S.) and to its own population.

It's hard not to feel like a victim when a nuclear-armed neighbour 15 times your size and with a history of aggressive brutality (remember Lạng Sơn, 1979?) starts rattling sabres.

Being a victim is different from victimhood.

We have been victim of numerous wars of aggression, but our psyche is strong therefore there is practically no sense of victimhood in VN, that is why visitors from the former aggressive countries are all welcome.

Examples of victimhood are the 3-que and Khmer Rouge wannabes, permanently bitter and filled with hatred.

The way I see it, China is raping Vietnam for land and resources and Vietwill is looking for help.

Pride. A reason why most women don't report rape because it's too shameful. Some of them actually enjoy it or pretending to. Filthy whores.

That's a serious allegation. Let's be safe and close the entire border, lay 2m landmines, put on an giant chastity belt, etc.

(The 3-que will send money to help the people in the border area who will lose their business and livelihood)

@Englanda,

Point noted re: victim v victimhood.

Victimhood is a very useful political tool. The Communist Party draws its legitimacy from its claims to be protecting the glorious revolution from perfidious foreigners. So the horrible and genuine problems caused by Agent Orange, landmines/UXB, and the overbearing behaviour of China are handled more in a way so as to boost the standing of CPVN than to maturely address the issues.

That said, I wonder what legitimacy 'Vietwill' has to be demanding action on the issues it mentions. Perhaps the O.P. could enlighten us?

China warns Exxon over Vietnam deal-newspaper
Reuters
20 July 2008


HONG KONG, July 20 (Reuters) - China has warned Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) to pull out of an exploration deal with Vietnam, describing the project as a breach of Chinese sovereignty, the South China Morning Post reported on Sunday, citing unnamed sources.

The article, which cited "sources close to the U.S. firm", said Chinese diplomats in Washington had made repeated verbal protests to Exxon Mobil executives in recent months, and warned them its future business interests on the mainland could be at risk.

The protests involve a preliminary co-operation agreement between state oil firm PetroVietnam and Exxon Mobil covering exploration in the South China Sea off Vietnam's south and central coasts, the article said.

It did not state when the co-operation agreement was signed.

The report quoted the unnamed sources as saying Exxon Mobil was confident of Vietnam's sovereign rights to the blocks it was exploring, but it could not dismiss China's warnings out of hand.

The newspaper said China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to queries about the situation and an Exxon Mobil spokesman refused to discuss any approaches from China.

But it quoted Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung as saying it needed to be "clearly asserted" that Hanoi's dealings with foreign oil partners fell entirely within Vietnam's legal rights and sovereignty.

China and Vietnam have a number of festering disagreements about territory. The two countries dispute sovereignty over the Spratly Islands, a string of rocky outcrops in the South China Sea suspected of containing large oil and gas deposits and also claimed by Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines.

China supported the Vietnamese Communists in their decades-long war against South Vietnam and its U.S. sponsors.

But Vietnam has traditionally been wary of its larger Asian neighbour and in 1979 the two countries fought a brief border war after Vietnam occupied Cambodia and overthrew the murderous Khmer Rouge regime that favoured Beijing.

Though Vietnam and China have agreed to cooperate in oil and gas exploration in the Gulf of Tonkin in the north, last year BP Plc (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research) halted plans to conduct exploration work off the southern Vietnamese coast, citing the territorial tensions.

And in December China chided Vietnam after protests in front of the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi proclaiming that the Spratly and Paracel islands belonged to the Vietnamese. (Reporting by Jeffrey Hodgson; Edited by Anshuman Daga)


______________________

China warns ExxonMobil to drop Vietnam deal: report
20 July 2008

HONG KONG (AFP) — China has warned US oil giant ExxonMobil to drop an exploration deal in the seas off Vietnam and said the project could threaten any future mainland contracts, a Hong Kong newspaper reported on Sunday.

Diplomats in Washington have contacted senior figures in the world's largest oil firm to protest the deal, which they say could be a breach of Chinese sovereignty, the Sunday Morning Post reported citing unnamed sources close to the US firm.

"If it was simply a legal question it would be easy," one of the sources told the newspaper.

"Vietnam would probably prevail in international mediation. But it's political, too. China's concerns make the situation much more complicated for a company like Exxon... China is a very important player in the international oil industry."

The dispute involves a preliminary co-operation agreement between state oil firm PetroVietnam and ExxonMobil covering exploration in the South China Sea off Vietnam's south and central coasts, the report said.

The Chinese protests are based on Beijing's historical claim to huge swathes of the South China Sea, the report said.

Last year, China criticised a joint deal between Vietnam and British energy giant BP near the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, saying the area has been an "indisputable part of Chinese territory since ancient times."

The report quoted Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung saying it needed to be "clearly asserted" that Hanoi's dealings with foreign oil partners fell entirely within Vietnam's legal rights and sovereignty.

China and Vietnam -- who in 1979 fought a short border war after Vietnam expelled the Beijing-backed Khmer Rouge from Cambodia -- also fought a brief naval battle in 1988 near the Spratly Islands.

Time to get the US Navy into Cam Ranh Bay?

How many Viets live in the USA who support the current government? Enough to make an Anti-VietWill demonstration?

China Tries To Make Exxon A Pawn
Investor Business Daily
21 July 2008


Energy: Big Oil is easy to kick around — just ask any Democrat in Congress. But China's threats to Exxon Mobil are in another league. Its bid to use Exxon Mobil as a wedge against its rival Vietnam is a case in point.


What China's doing in the South China Sea these days is not trade, but blackmail to assert regional dominance. On Sunday, the South China Morning Post reported Chinese officials are threatening to exclude Exxon Mobil from doing business in China if it doesn't pull out of an exploration deal with Vietnam's state oil company, PetroVietnam.

The region in question is clearly Vietnam's (see map). Exxon Mobil has been doing its homework on this area ever since the U.S. trade embargo was lifted in 1994. But China claims Vietnam's central and southern offshore coastal waters, where the exploration is occurring, is its territory. Though its claim wouldn't hold up in an international court, China seems to believe Vietnam is a wayward stepchild and, thus, China doesn't need to recognize its sovereignty.

Exxon Mobil, as a result, might have to drop the project, leaving Vietnam with no technology to extract its badly needed coastal oil.

BP bailed out on a similar project a year ago after Chinese threats. The result? Less oil on the market and higher prices.

This goes against China's reputation as a pragmatic, economically focused state, which is how conventional wisdom explains why China is scouring the Earth and sidling up to dodgy dictators to secure new oil resources. The Exxon Mobil threat calls into question China's membership in the World Trade Organization, which doesn't let members menace foreign firms for political purposes.

It's not hard to see the outlines of what's going on. Vietnam and China have a festering dispute over who rules the Spratly Islands, a group of atolls 280 miles off Vietnam, halfway to the Philippines. The 200 islands are mostly rocky and small, and worthless except as fishing stations. But after oil was discovered in their surrounding waters in 1968, six nations made claims to them.

Vietnam's case is strongest — on historic grounds, on the continental shelf principle and because it has carefully defined its territorial claim, according to Global Security, a private forecaster. China's claim, on the other hand, is broad, vague and overarching, with little legal basis. The islands aren't even close to its coast.

The dispute has intensified since both countries shed elements of their communist regimes and moved toward authoritarian regimes with market economies.

Both countries are growing fast and need oil. But because Vietnam's claim is the one that would hold up in court, China's new tactic signals it's willing to use bullying and threats to assert its muscle. It's threatening Vietnam's ability to develop its oil through a beggar-thy-neighbor strategy, using American oil companies as leverage.

Earlier this month, China got hit hard by the WTO for its protectionist trade policies in auto parts. Now, again, it seems to be using its clout as the world's No. 1 exporter to flout the rules and norms.

In 2001, when China was on the verge of joining the WTO with strong U.S. support, it vowed to observe global trade laws and to be a law-abiding, upstanding corporate citizen.

So much for that idea. By kicking around Western oil companies and asserting its hegemony over Southeast Asia, China has become just another petrotyranny, like Venezuela or Russia.

If China won't live up to its obligations as a good global citizen, then maybe its largest market, the U.S., can remind China that two can play at this game.

Duy Hoang oi,

This is a forum, not a dumping point for your press releases.

Maybe you'll get a better response if you encourage some debate.

Rick,

A forum is also a source of information (or you can think of if as a dumping ground of information depending on how you choose to look at it). There is only one press release and the rest are newspaper articles that are relevant to the issue. Presently, I have time to inform, but don't have much time for idle chat. If you find the information helpful, you can make use of it. If you don't find it useful or informative, you don't have to make use of it. I am not looking for personal support or people to like me. I only want to inform. Judge the information on its merit. It doesn't really matter to me if people debate or not, especially when the debates often go down the path of condescension, name calling and the like. It actually distracts from the seriousness of the issue, and it wastes energy that could be used for something else more useful. But if people are informed on what's going on, then I hope that my posts will help them to reflect on the issue more seriously. That's all.

Duy Hoang,

I'm sorry you think so little of these forums that you think all you will get is idle debate, condescension and name calling.

I think some of us countries in SEAsia should have a coalition. One by one we going to get our asses kicked. Big powers come and walk all over us and $hit saying how they are victimized and yet use the same form of imperialism on weaker powers.

A cheap shot from a low-lifer!!! The Party is the biggest cry-baby of all time, always blaming others for its mistakes and failures, permanently worring that people would deal it the same fate that it had deal to millions of Viets over the years since it came to power!!!

Wait until some one kickes your cool *ss out of your cool house (that may rightfully belong to one of them "3-que" before it got liberated and given to your family years ago) Stupid remarks from one like you only make it more difficult to talk about reconciliation and rebuilding.

The point, surely, is that while Vietnam might have a historical claim to the Truong Sa Islands, that is not going to mean much as China increasingly flexes its military muscles.

Vietnam (its government, that is) has to find allies at an international level to get the best result it can, which may be some kind of shared sovereignty with the other 5 or 6 countries who claim the region.