China, Vietnam clash again over South China Sea claims

Ray

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China, Vietnam clash again over South China Sea claims
Reuters
December 12, 2014 1:48 AM


China and Vietnam have clashed again over competing claims in the South China Sea, after Vietnam submitted its position to an arbitration tribunal initiated by the Philippines over the festering dispute that involves several countries.
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China has said repeatedly it will not participate in the case at the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, branding it an underhand attempt to exert political pressure over territory which is inherently Chinese.

China's foreign ministry, in a statement released late on Thursday, called on Vietnam to respect China's sovereignty, which it said had historical basis.

China will not change its position of not taking part in the arbitration, the ministry said.

Vietnam's foreign ministry said it had submitted its point of view to the court to ensure it pays attention to "our legal rights and interests".

Vietnam has historical proof and the legal basis to support its claims, and rejects China's "unilateral" claims, it added.

China has warned Vietnam before against getting involved in the arbitration case, the first time China has been subjected to international legal scrutiny over the waters.

Anti-Chinese violence flared in Vietnam in May after a $1 billion (£635.8 million) deepwater rig owned by China's state-run CNOOC oil company was parked 240 km (150 miles) off the coast of Vietnam.

Since then, though, China has sought to make amends with Vietnam.

China claims about 90 percent of the South China Sea, displaying its reach on official maps with a so-called nine-dash line that stretches deep into the maritime heart of Southeast Asia.

Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have claims to parts of the potentially energy-rich waters that are crossed by key global shipping lanes.

https://news.yahoo.com/china-vietnam-clash-again-over-south-china-sea-064808649.html
As usual China thinks that the world stops at China.

Ridiculous is their contention that China has said repeatedly it will not participate in the case at the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, branding it an underhand attempt to exert political pressure over territory which is inherently Chinese.

So, which Court is China ready to place its case or is China is the Man on the Moon and is not on Earth.

The fact is clear that Vietnam has historical proof and the legal basis to support its claims, and rejects China's "unilateral" claims.

China is aware that it is hoax and so fight shy of international arbitration.

It is time to put China in its place as a responsible nation in the world comity.
 

sorcerer

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http://thediplomat.com/2015/09/watch-out-china-vietnams-coast-guard-will-fight-back/

Watch Out China: Vietnam's Coast Guard Will Fight Back
A new Vietnamese regulation will allow its coast guard to use weapons to deter and repel ships.



By Ankit Panda
September 11, 2015

Starting October 20, 2015, Vietnamese coast guard vessels will be permitted to use on-board weapons to deter and repel foreign boats. According to a report by Vietnam’s Thanh Nien news agency, the country’s government has introduced a new regulation which allows the coast guard to play a more active role in defense. The move is almost certainly a response to concerns about China’s attempts at asserting its claims to waters disputed between it and Vietnam, best encapsulated in last summer’s stand-off over China’s Haiyang Shiyou 981 oil rig, which entered Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Chinese and Vietnamese vessels rammed and capsized each other at the time, and vessels from both sides exchanged water cannon fire.

The new rules could mean that should another major stand-off between China and Vietnam occur, the possibility of escalation to an all-out kinetic conflict will be much greater. Vietnam’s move also mirror’s China’s own efforts to create a “second navy” through the militarization of its white-hulled maritime law enforcement and coast guard vessels. According to Thanh Nien, the Vietnamese coast guard will be permitted to use force “until the foreign boats are completely out of Vietnamese waters.” Vietnam continues to claim the entirety of the Paracel Islands, which China administers as part of Hainan province.

It’s unclear if the new regulation distinguishes between Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone and its territorial waters–an important distinction under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). According to UNCLOS, a state’s territorial sea extends out for 12 nautical miles from “baselines,” which are, with a few exceptions, defined as ”low-water line along the coast as marked on large-scale charts officially recognized by the coastal State.” Meanwhile, an EEZ ”is an area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea,” extending no more than 200 nautical miles from the baselines. UNCLOS, per article 62, outlines criteria under which foreign vessels, both civilian and military, can lawfully operate within an EEZ. The Thanh Nien report is sparse on these details, noting that the new regulation applies to dealing with foreign boats that have entered “the country’s waters illegally.”

It’s unlikely that Vietnam will use this new regulation to brazenly provoke vessels lawfully operating within its EEZ, as it does not do so currently. Rather, the regulation appears to be intended to deter a repeat of last year’s oil rig saga, where Chinese civilian fishing boats and coast guard vessels, in violation of UNCLOS, were conducting activity in Vietnam’s EEZ without Hanoi’s consent. Reassuringly, the new regulation does have a warning phase–it requires that Vietnamese authorities first verbally notify foreign vessels illegally present in Vietnamese “waters” to leave the area before Vietnamese authorities are permitted to deploy offensive means to deter and repel these ships.


http://thediplomat.com/2015/09/watch-out-china-vietnams-coast-guard-will-fight-back/
 

I_PLAY_BAD

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Now is the right time for India to explore more oil in SCS and show the Chinese how we feel when they wipe their noses inside PoK.
 

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