Anti-Chinese Riots erupts in Vietnam : 1 Chinese killed 100 hurt

[rock127]

A riot at a steel plant in Vietnam has left one Chinese worker dead and over 100 injured, officials said Thursday, as an angry Beijing accused Hanoi of "connivance" in the worst anti-China unrest in decades.

Anti-Chinese Violence Turns Deadly and Spreads in Vietnam[/URL]http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/one-dead-100-hurt-as-anti/1107714.html

HANOI: A riot at a steel plant in Vietnam has left one Chinese worker dead and over 100 injured, officials said Thursday, as an angry Beijing accused Hanoi of "connivance" in the worst anti-China unrest in decades.

Long-simmering enmity between the neighbors has boiled over in Vietnam with protests in major cities and mobs torching foreign-owned factories after China deployed an oil drilling rig in contested waters.

Worker demonstrations have spread to 22 of Vietnam's 63 provinces, the government said, calling for "tough measures" to bring the situation under control before alarmed foreign investors pull out of the country.Hundreds of Chinese nationals have fled across the border into neighbouring Cambodia, according to police there.

The latest riots broke out Wednesday at a steel mill owned by Taiwanese group Formosa Plastics in Vietnam's central Ha Tinh province, around 500 kilometres from Hanoi.Formosa said the trouble had begun when Vietnamese workers at its plant staged a strike which quickly became violent.Workers began "attacking some Chinese workers and damaged offices and equipment," it said in a statement.

"One Chinese male worker was killed in the chaos," local official Dang Quoc Khanh told AFP, adding that three houses at the Formosa plant for Chinese workers had been destroyed.At least 149 people were injured, Khanh told state-run VTV, adding that police had arrested 76 people and opened an investigation."The rioters have gone but we are all still concerned they might come back," Taiwan's de facto ambassador Huang Chih-peng said, adding that no Taiwanese nationals were hurt.

China accused Hanoi of acting in concert with the protesters.

The violence in Vietnam had "a direct link with the Vietnamese side's indulgence and connivance in recent days with some domestic anti-China forces and lawbreakers," Beijing's foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters.China's official news agency Xinhua said that around 10 Chinese remained unaccounted for after rioters attacked four Chinese companies in the central province of Ha Tinh, citing a Chinese manager.Beijing also issued a warning to tourists planning trips to Vietnam, advising them to "carefully consider" their plans.

The backdrop is a history of rivalry between the neighbours, who have close economic ties but often fraught diplomatic relations, particularly over the contested Paracel and Spratly islands in the South China Sea.In 1974, as US troops withdrew from Vietnam, China invaded the Paracel Islands, which were held by the US-backed South Vietnamese regime.The neighbours fought a brief but bloody border war in 1979 after China invaded following Vietnam's intervention in Cambodia to oust Beijing's Khmer Rouge allies.

They came to blows again in 1988 in the contested Spratly islands in a naval battle in which more than 70 Vietnamese sailors were killed.However, the two countries normalised relations in 1991 and their economic fortunes have become increasingly intertwined.

Beijing's increasing assertiveness in staking its claim to almost all of the South China Sea also has caused concern for other neighbouring countries, particularly the Philippines.Tensions flared earlier this month after Beijing moved a deep-water drilling rig into waters that Hanoi claims -- a move Vietnam has denounced as "illegal".There have been repeated skirmishes near the controversial oil drilling rig in recent days involving vessels from the two countries, with collisions and the use of water cannon.

The widespread unrest has broken out since Vietnam's rulers -- who usually tightly control dissent -- allowed rallies against Beijing at the weekend.Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung described the situation as "very serious" and said that, while the recent groundswell of patriotism was "the correct thing", instigators who broke the law would be punished, according to an official statement.

In the southern province of Binh Duong, riot police were deployed Wednesday after anti-China riots and arson attacks forced several factories to temporarily suspend operations, including a supplier for Nike and Adidas.Police said they had detained some 500 people after nearly 20,000 workers poured onto the streets Tuesday and began looting and attacking security guards and factory management before setting fire to at least 15 factories.

Export-orientated manufacturing is a key pillar of Vietnam's economy, with high-profile firms -- from electronics giants such as South Korea's Samsung to US sportswear companies -- producing goods there.Taiwan is one of the top foreign investors in Vietnam.

 

[rock127]

The below says 21 Chinese killed.

16 Chinese and 5 Vietnamese.

Up to 21 dead, doctor says, as anti-China riots spread in Vietnam | Reuters

 

[Ray]

It seems that Vietnam is taking the issue very seriously.

 

[rock127]

It seems that Vietnam is taking the issue very seriously.

Unlike India these Vietnamese have much more guts and nationalism.

While these Chinese were putting up tents in our land our politicians were busy doing more business with China and as a fact Sell-Man Khurshid was in China those days and praised Chinese. So they actually rewarded China for incursions instead of decreasing business thinking that "Business" would change the typical Han Chinese aggressive land/air/sea grabbing mentality.

 

[CCP]

Singaporean flag ....

 

[CCP]

poor Taiwanese..

 

[Srinivas_K]

Yes a riot in which factories of South Korea, Taiwan and China are burnt. Also Nike and Adidas factories are shut down.

Seems these riots are aimed at damaging Vietnam's emerging manufacturing industry than Chinese.

 

[Ray]

China media: Vietnam tensions

Media criticise Vietnamese authorities for "fanning nationalism" amid anti-China protests in the country.

At least 15 foreign-owned factories were set on fire and hundreds more attacked by thousands of protesters at two industrial parks in southern Vietnam on Tuesday.

The protests came after China moved a drilling rig into waters also claimed by Vietnam earlier this month.

Li Jinming, a professor of South China Sea studies at Xiamen University, tells the China Daily that Vietnam is "provoking China on land and sea in a high-stakes gamble".

Historian Li Guoqiang describes the incident as "high-profile propaganda" by the Vietnamese authorities that "resulted in riots".

"The incident will not only harm relations with China but also endanger Vietnam's international image, especially as an investment and tourist destination," he tells the daily.

Echoing similar sentiments, the Global Times' Chinese edition states that the riots have "seriously harmed foreign investors" and they should be "compensated for damages incurred".

"Others could easily see that Hanoi authorities have permitted the riots and public opinion has still not condemned the rioters," it notes.

An article in the Beijing News comments that both the Philippines and Vietnam are "hyping up the South China Sea problem" to "divert" attention from other domestic issues.

"Both countries are facing a myriad of issues including serious corruption, rising unemployment and social conflicts. They are making use of the South China Sea problem to fan nationalism and divert attention on these domestic issues," the paper says.

Meanwhile, media urge foreign companies "not to challenge" China's laws, as an employee of a British pharmaceutical firm is probed for bribery.

Police have accused Mark Reilly, an executive at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), of ordering staff to bribe hospital officials in China.

Mr Reilly and two other colleagues are also suspected of bribing government officials in Beijing and Shanghai, police say.

GSK said it took the allegations "very seriously" and would co-operate with the authorities over the matter.

"This is not a singular case, but one of the examples showing China's increasing effort in fighting corruption," Zhu Guohua, a law professor at Tongji University, tells the Global Times.

He recalls that several foreign companies have faced corruption allegations in recent years, prompting the government to tighten the commercial graft law.

The Beijing Times notes that some multinational corporations are "still expecting preferential treatment".

It urges the authorities to improve the market mechanism and strengthen the legal system to deter foreign enterprises from "challenging Chinese laws".

"The case also shows that the Chinese market mechanism is far from perfect and these corporations are making use of the loopholes for their own benefit," it adds.

'Anti-mainland' sentiments
Elsewhere, media reflect on "anti-mainland" sentiment after a Taiwanese singer said he did not welcome people from the mainland..

Veteran singer Bobby Chen, whose songs are popular in the mainland, has supported protests against a trade pact with China.

Earlier in March, hundreds of students occupied the Taiwan government's headquarters to protest against the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement.

Protestors said the deal, which would allow the two sides to invest more freely in each other's services markets, would hurt Taiwan's economy and leave it vulnerable to pressure from Beijing.

"We do not need to earn so much money. Do we have to sacrifice our quality of life? I hope the mainlanders don't come to Taiwan," the singer told Taiwan media outlets.

His comments gained wide attention in China and sparked heated online debate, prompting a response from China's Taiwan Affairs Office.

"His views are not representative of the majority in Taiwan's society," says Ma Xiaoguang, spokesperson of the office.

An article on the Tencent web portal points out that Bobby Chen's remarks represent the views of the younger generation in Taiwan.

"Some of the mainlanders thought Taiwan would feel indebted by accepting the agreement. Such views do not help in relieving cross-strait tensions," it adds.

Observing that negative emotions between netizens in the mainland and Taiwan have been running high, a commentary on the Beijing News calls for more understanding among people.

"There have been more exchanges between the people in recent years, so it is strange that the enmity is growing instead. We need deeper and more sincere interactions for us to rediscover each other," it says.

BBC News - China media: Vietnam tensions

 

[Ray]

Hong Kong issues Vietnam travel warning after mobs torch Chinese factories

Beijing and Hong Kong authorities warn against travel to Vietnam after protesters, angry over oil drilling in disputed waters, run amok

The Hong Kong government issued an amber travel warning for Vietnam after protesters there vandalised hundreds of foreign-owned factories and torched at least 15 of them.

The riots followed a large protest by workers on Tuesday against China's recent placement of an oil rig in disputed waters around the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea.

The rioting in Binh Duong province followed protests by up to 20,000 workers at industrial parks near Ho Chi Minh City. Smaller groups of men attacked factories they believed were mainland Chinese-run, but many were Taiwanese or South Korean, the provincial government said.

"Everyone is terrified," said Serena Liu, chairwoman of the Taiwan Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam. "Some people tried to drive out of Binh Duong, but looters had put up roadblocks."

More than 200 Taiwanese took shelter at the Mira Hotel in Thu Dau Mot, according to Chen Bor-show, director general of the Taipei Economic and Culture Office in Ho Chi Minh City.

There were similar protests in nearby Dong Nai province.

"The workers [don't care] which country the factory belongs to," said Bob Hsu, general manager of Taiwan's Great Super Enterprise, which shut its garment factories in Dong Nai. Protesters looking at company names "are just trying to find a Chinese word. It includes Korean, Japanese factories".

"Factories with Chinese writing or names are targets of destruction," a Hong Kong garment manufacturer in Ho Chi Minh who did not want to be named said. His factory had so far escaped the protests unscathed, partly helped by a disguised Chinese identity. "We are a joint venture with a local Vietnamese investor, and luckily we don't have any Chinese writing at our factory entrance," he said.

Felix Chung Kwok-pan, a lawmaker for the textiles and garment constituency, said there were hundreds of Hong Kong-owned factories in Vietnam, and the labour-intensive industry was the biggest victim of the anti-China riots.

Hong Kong's Immigration Department said by 10pm yesterday it had received three requests for help from Hongkongers in Vietnam.

The foreign ministry in Beijing and its embassy in Hanoi issued warnings to Chinese citizens. The embassy's website said it saw no end to the attacks and urged Chinese to take precautions.

In Taipei, President Ma Ying-jeou told a national security conference that if the situation worsened, the government would send aircraft to evacuate its nationals.

Singapore called in Vietnam's ambassador to the country to voice concerns over the protests, according to a statement from the city-state's foreign ministry.

"Singapore views this issue very seriously given our close economic cooperation with Vietnam," the ministry said in the statement. The government had "requested the Vietnamese authorities to restore order urgently".

The United States issued an appeal for the dispute over the oil rig to be settled through dialogue, not intimidation.

Hong Kong issues Vietnam travel warning after mobs torch Chinese factories | South China Morning Post

 

[Ray]

War of words erupts as John Kerry calls Beijing 'provocative' in South China Sea disputes

Foreign minister hits back after John Kerry calls Chinese actions in South China Sea 'provocative'

China and the United States exchanged heated words yesterday over the recent tensions between Beijing and its neighbours about disputed territory in the South China Sea.

"[John Kerry] said China's introduction of an oil rig and numerous government vessels in waters disputed with Vietnam was provocative," US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, referring to a telephone call between the US secretary of state and Foreign Minister Wang Yi .

Wang called on the US to be objective and urged it to "stick to its promises, and act and speak cautiously", according to a statement on the Foreign Ministry's website.

Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying said China had not taken any provocative moves in the South China Sea.

"The US' mistaken comments have encouraged dangerous and provocative actions," she said in a daily press briefing. "We expect the US to reflect on its acts. If it expects the Pacific Ocean to be peaceful, it should think what role it can play in maintaining regional peace and stability."

The exchange between the two top diplomats came as tensions between China and Vietnam escalated after Beijing positioned an oil rig on May 1 in the Paracel Islands - called the Xisha Islands by China and the Hoang Sa Islands in Vietnam, which also claims them.

At the same time, the Philippines decided to prosecute nine of 11 Chinese fishermen apprehended in the disputed Spratly Islands for poaching sea turtles. Manila said it released two fishermen because they were minors.

"We were told that the two minors would be released soon," said Dai Yudao, an official of an association that represents the fishermen in Qionghai, Hainan province.

"But we are not familiar with the Philippine legal system and don't know what will happen to the other fishermen."

Beijing and Hanoi have been engaged in a stand-off over the past week, with both accusing each other of ramming ships.

In signs that the tensions may linger for some time, several thousand Vietnamese workers protested at an industrial park in Binh Duong province in southern Vietnam yesterday over Beijing's deployment of the oil rig. The plant is Taiwanese-owned and makes footwear. The workers waved banners and shouted anti-China slogans, Vietnam's Thanh Nien Daily reported on its website.

Employees of other production plants also joined the protest.

About 1,000 workers from Mega Step Electronics, which is under the Hong Kong-based Fittec International Group, also took part, Thanh Nien said.

In a meeting with Singapore's foreign minister, K. Shanmugam, yesterday, Kerry said the US was concerned about the Chinese challenge to the Paracel Islands.

"We want to see a code of conduct created; we want to see this resolved peacefully through the Law of the Sea, through arbitration, through any other means, but not direct confrontation and aggressive action," he said.

Wang Fan, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University, said the conversation between the Chinese and American top diplomats indicated that both nations were taking steps to avoid the territorial disputes becoming another flashpoint between Beijing and Washington.

"On one hand, the US can showcase the importance of its presence in the Asia Pacific, and draw Southeast Asian nations closer to Washington with the disputes between Beijing and its neighbours," he said. "But on the other hand, it does not want the dispute to get out of control."

War of words erupts as John Kerry calls Beijing 'provocative' in South China Sea disputes | South China Morning Post

 

[CCP]

so what ?
Anyone here thinks China will stop ?

 

[s002wjh]

Nationalism is a double edge sword. Seem the riot shutdown more foreign factor than chinese one Anti-China Riots In Vietnam Leave Over A Hundred Injured

 

[Ray]

Chinese of late are the ones who display huge nationalism!

 

[DBF1954]

Bad enough a thing like this could happen. By attacking also factories owned by persons from South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore friends and support from the region will not be helping if needed for years to come.

Also the very people who bring money and jobs will be going elsewhere. The steel plant would have been the largest and most modern in SE Asia and the fools attack it and want to destroy it.

 

[Ray]

Bad enough a thing like this could happen. By attacking also factories owned by persons from South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore friends and support from the region will not be helping if needed for years to come.

One must use one's brains to make a point.

You are right you cannot alienate others who are not involved!

 

[t_co]

http://blogs.cfr.org/asia/2014/05/15/vietnam-protests-more-than-just-anti-china-sentiment/

Protests that broke out earlier this week at factories in southern Vietnam have resulted in hundreds of arrests the past two days. Demonstrators torched several factories and smashed up more in industrial areas on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City. The exact number of arrests remains unknown, but some human rights activists I spoke with are now estimating the number of arrests is in the high hundreds, not the figures in the low hundreds given by news reports on Wednesday. Without a doubt, though, the coverage of the riots in the New York Times, which called them the worst public unrest in recent Vietnamese history, is correct. There have been deadlier protests and riots in rural areas of Vietnam in recent years, especially in ethnic minority highland areas, but these protests and crackdowns received little public attention, and did not involve the numbers of people that we saw involved in the Ho Chi Minh City riots this week.

Most of the coverage of these industrial zone protests has focused on the anti-China aspect of the demonstrations; many protestors reportedly started demonstrating to protest Beijing's recent actions in the South China Sea, where Beijing has put a new oil rig in waters claimed by Vietnam. Beijing has used aggressive tactics, including ramming Vietnamese ships and pelting them with water cannons, to prevent Vietnamese coast guard ships from approaching the rig and disputing China's claimed economic zone in the South China Sea. Of course, Beijing also has rejected taking overlapping claims in the Sea to international arbitration, as the Philippines wants to do, and has stalled efforts to work on a real code of conduct for the South China Sea with Asean. China's actions toward Vietnamese coast guard ships have, even by the more aggressive standards of recent years, probably been the hardest-line actions taken by Beijing in the Sea in twenty years. And China shows no sign of backing down.

Without a doubt, demonstrations started in part due to anti-China sentiment, which is easy to spark in Vietnam. Rioters clearly were looking to attack factories with what they thought were names of Chinese companies, at least at first. However, I do not think that the demonstrations in the Ho Chi Minh City outskirts were fuelled solely by anti-China sentiment; many demonstrators, even if they were stirred by anti-China sentiment, have several other important reasons to protest. Protestors reportedly shouted a range of slogans while attacking, not merely anti-China rhetoric. In the past five years, Vietnam, which was never in any way an open society, has become increasingly closed and repressive. During that time the government has overseen one of the harshest crackdowns on activists, writers, and bloggers of any country in the world, and passed some of the most repressive legislation restricting the Internet and social media of any nation on earth. While five or ten years ago complaints about the government and corruption were common in private conversations with educated Vietnamese, now even in private many people are wary of making such criticisms. This growing suppression, at a time when Vietnam's economy has slowed seriously, the number of entrants to the labor force is growing, and the government has not made good on promises to reform the economy, slash corruption, and cut bloat at state enterprises, has led to a potentially explosive amount of dissent in Vietnamese society.

What's more, manufacturing workers in Vietnam have become increasingly frustrated at their inability to win better working conditions in all factories, not only in those owned by Chinese firms. Vietnam's state-controlled union is just a façade, which is why Vietnam now is witnessing a growing number of seemingly impromptu worker strikes.

So, while anti-China sentiment might have played a central role in these demonstrations, anger at Beijing is not the only driving factor here. Hanoi has now sent large battalions of security forces to crack down on the demonstrators, perhaps regretting that it allowed anti-China demonstrations to take place peacefully in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City prior to these riots. But unless Hanoi recognizes that anger at the Vietnamese government's own policies also drive unrest, it will have done little to address the root causes of the anger.

Vietnam can't even stage a riot without botching it up.

Vietnam might descend into civil war between the old guard communist party there and anti-Chinese, pro-West elements if China makes another such move in the SCS. China knows this possibility, and hence knows it has leverage over the Vietnamese Party if push comes to shove.

 

[Zero_Wing]

This bad for Vietnam i know they hate chinese imperialism but they must know who and what is the enemy hurting innocent people is not helping anyone protest and cut ties with china not hurt chinese or anyone else.

 

[CCP]

1 Germany and 2 US firms have also been robbed.

I think its easy to distinguish American/European and Chinese....

 

[Illusive]

They could have simply boycotted Chinese goods where other alternatives are available.

 

[CCP]

They could have simply boycotted Chinese goods where other alternatives are available.

It is hard, just like you can not stop to use your "made in China" computer.