On Monday and Tuesday, China’s state-run media used very strong language to attack Vietnam, its communist neighbor and a key South China Sea rival. This reproach came after the foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) endorsed a joint communiqué that indirectly criticized Beijing’s territorial and military expansion in the disputed area.
China, which claims nearly all of the 3.5-million-square-kilometer sea, was believed to have gotten an easy ride from the regional bloc on the maritime disputes at its recent ministerial meetings in Manila.
Yet, reportedly pushed by Vietnam, instead of avoiding tackling their hulking neighbor’s contentious activities, the 10 ASEAN foreign ministers “discussed extensively the matters” and eventually issued the final statement on Sunday night. In it, they “took note of the concerns expressed by some ministers on the land reclamations and activities” and “emphasized the importance of non-militarization and self-restraint” in the area.
Arguably upset by the communiqué’s wording and particularly Vietnam’s posture, state-run newspaper China Daily accused Hanoi of hyping up the South China Sea issue and acting as a “thief crying ‘stop thief’” in the hotly contested waters. In its view, it is not China but Vietnam that has been working on land reclamation and boosting its military deployment there in recent years.
Xinhua claimed that “Vietnam is the very country [that] has vigorously seized islands, reclaimed lands and pushed for militarization in the South China Sea”.
While it did not cite which figures it referred to, China’s official news agency asserted: “Figures show that since 2007, Vietnam has increased the pace of its large-scale land reclamation … and even built a number of new military facilities in the South China Sea.”
But from observing Beijing’s claims and actions relating to the South China Sea disputes in recent years, many would agree that the contrary is true. Indeed, Beijing’s massive land reclamation and militarization in the world’s most disputed waters has been well documented and widely recognized.
For instance, a study by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and Australia’s Strategic Forum published last year concluded that China had alarmingly increased its expansionism in the South China Sea since President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012.
The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI), a US think-tank that monitors developments in maritime-security issues in the region, also found that “since 2013, China has engaged in unprecedented and ecologically devastating dredging and island-building at all seven of the features it occupies in the Spratly Islands”, creating nearly 1,300 hectares of new land.
In contrast, by the AMTI’s estimation, Vietnam has reclaimed about 49 hectares at the reefs and islets it occupies, amounting to less than 4% of the scale of Beijing’s work. The methods employed by Hanoi are also far less destructive.
In terms of facility construction and military installation, Vietnam’s work likewise pales in comparison with China’s.
According to the Washington-based group, and as widely reported, several of China’s man-made islands, including its three largest, are now equipped with kilometer-long runways, weapons – including surface-to-air missiles and anti-missile systems – or storage facilities for military equipment.
In contrast, Vietnam has built only one airstrip and some hangars at one of its bases. Moreover, as noted by the think-tank, Hanoi’s modest work is a response to its giant neighbor’s construction of military facilities on artificial islands in the region.
It is also worth noting that after years of public denial, an official Chinese magazine has finally not only acknowledged but hailed Xi Jinping’s leading role in “building islands and consolidating the reefs”, praising the fact that his decisions “fundamentally changed the strategic situation of the South China Sea”.
Beijing’s vehement opposition to, and furious anger at, the inclusion of the contentious activities in the area in the drafted or endorsed joint communiqués by ASEAN or other groupings, such as the Group of 7, even though they do not mention China by name, can also speak volumes about its maritime conduct.
If it were a benign and responsible country, which did not engage in any unlawful and aggressive activity in the sea, there would be no need for it to react in such a negative, resentful way. Instead, it should wholeheartedly welcome ASEAN’s latest joint communiqué because the agreed statement called for “non-militarization and self-restraint in the conduct of all activities by claimants and all other states” in the area.
Its rejection of the statement, which was adopted by consensus, is mainly because, though China is not directly named, the world – and even perhaps Beijing itself – knows, it is mainly aimed at its contentious behavior in the region.
After all, it is China’s extensive claims, large-scale island-building and huge military buildup – not Vietnam’s behavior – in the region that have raised widespread attention, denunciation and apprehension.
Thus by accusing its smaller neighbor of acting as a “thief crying ‘stop thief’”, it is not Vietnam, but rather China, that behaves hypocritically.
In the same vein, it could be argued, instead of presenting itself as a benign, responsible and peaceful power and calling “for Vietnam to readjust [its] attitude and promote peace” in the South China Sea, China should perhaps reconsider its own behavior.
Funny article, PhD Doan stressed that China did more rather than Vietnam in past several years, however since 1970s, your motherland has already built lots of airports, military facilities, hospitals and naval bases in many dispute islands located in the South China Sea. Even these islands’ belonging to China were confirmed by several diplomatic note verbals from the government of Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 1970s. So who is the thief? It cannot be judged by some biased data from US think-tanks, but it’s clear that Vietnam is the more skilled one.
The VIET commies just Asked President Trump to nuke China…. it’s inevitable…
Do you know why Vietnam occupies more locations than anyone else in the SCS? Because they have been there since the 1800’s – way before your illegal 9-dashed map created in 1947! Now, name 1 single location China currently, occupies without having previously invaded Vietnam? Those facts define who the thief is
China was the real thief here and most people outside of china and non- chinese would agree with it. Go outside of china and read history books in the libraries, since you chinese have been brainwashed by the government too long to deny it. Before the 9 dash-line claim, which created in 1947, the furthest chinese claimed land was HAINAN island. Vietnam owned the paracel and splatly islands since 1800’s. The french transferred ownership to Vietnam when it gained independence.
It takes one to know one.
Hai Nguyen …I think you should use the 9-dash line in your argument against the Chinese. If such a claim stands, all the features and islands in the SCS belong to China too. On the other hand, if the 9-dash line is false, rejected, then China owns nothing in the SCS. Even if China currently occupies only one feature or artificial island, China is the thief.
If these comments are true then when the Republic of China filed the 11-dash line with the U.N. in 1946 there would have been rival claims. There were none. Even the U.S. recognized the legitimacy of the 11-dash line by notifying the Republic of China government when they entered their waters. Vietnamese school textbooks show that they suddenly claimed large swaths of the South China Sea in 1975.
It’s clear that the Vietnamese people are more entitled to claim the South China Sea than the greedy PRC. The U.S. should deepen relations with Vietnam and help them country Chinese aggression and colinization efforts.
Wood Wu I could but I didnot have to: on July 12, 2016 the UNCLOS’s Permanent of Arbitration ruled that Chinese 9-dashed claim illegal!
Jason Jean The ROC has never filed the 11-dashed line with the UN in 1946 or even to this day. It was am Interiors Dept drawn map circulated within the soon losing Chiang Kai-shek government (KMT). The US does not recognize ROC’s legitimacy and/or any claimant’s for that matter. In fact, 2 days ago the USS John McCann just made a FONOP cross inside 12 miles of China’s Mischief. Did the ROC.Taiwan give the US permission to provoke China? Finally, let me repeat that Vietnam did not "suddenly claimed large swaths of the South China Sea in 1975." – they were there since the 1800’s!
Look who is the thief. Tibet was annexed by whom. Who is building one belt road in Kashmir a disputed place. It’s only China
Thank you Xuan Loc Doan for your thoughful, wise and peaceful article. China should care the issue in terms of global peace – as world opinion is behalf of peace.
In any way you look at it or whoever you may ask about it for whatever logic you may apply in it, it is clear who the thief is. Lol
It is not strange for VN writer right sth good about his country and bad about their enemy… VN and China are both bad but at least China is not as bad as US that ruined other countries. I hope all humanity wipe out with Nuke war so the world will heal again.
SOMEBODY MUST STEP UP AND STOP vaCHINA’S THIEFT,ROBBERY and ILLEGAL RECLAMATION IN THE DISPUTED SEA.
DTOP vaCHINA’S TRANS-TRANSGRESION AT ALL COST.
And also, PLA arm forces were only 300 km from New Delhi. They could have marched into their capital if they had chosen to.
China themselves should know. South China sea does not belong to CHINA, just like Indian ocean does not belong to india, Sea of Japan also does not belongs to Japan alone…>>>>
Adm. Harry Harris, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, was even more explicit during a recent congressional testimony, where he said, "The South China Sea is no more China’s than the Gulf of Mexico is Mexico’s."
http://asia.nikkei.com/magazine/20151029-WILL-WE-WON-T-WE/Politics-Economy/For-US-Pacific-showdown-with-China-a-long-time-coming
Jokers of Mainland china! …then China don’t own South china seas too! Of course japan sea is not owned solely by japan. Indian ocean also ain’t india! Just stop your own self contradicting, CHINA
SO we should believe in "self declared THINK THANK" by Zhiyong Cao of Nanjing University then ? hahaha. Go cheat your own brainwashed idiotic chinamen, Fascist mainland chinese
Harping their tunes to please their soul. So self righteous.
Otherwise no job. What to expect from useless people.
Excellent article by Dr. Doan, it is indeed China which is the real thief and bully in the World today. China has territorial disputes with everyone around it, and now with DEBT TRAP and bribes is trying to bully and coerce Nations to side with it and give up their land and claims.
It is high time Nations around the World stand up to China, and push it back as India has done in Doklam region which is a Bhutanese territory, who is under Indian protection.
The thief got its hired drilling ship sailed to Malaysia and the thief will owe tens of million to Odfjell.
Hai Nguyen Look at their locations and every year, Vietnam tried to build them up and end up washing away by nature. Vietnam was a vassal state for millenium (read your history). France is not coming to your aid for territory claim.
Just go back anc check up all the Western publications and maps like encylopedia Britianical prior to their revised 1990s versions to see whom they say all South China seas islands belong to. Then you will know who is the real thief who can now act with alarcity armed only with the mandate of the arbitral ruling of the One World Order .
Hai Nguyen Vietnam was a tributary state to China, who paid tribute to the chinese emperor for centuries before the 1800s. China allowed your country among others free trade and commerce in that time and Vietnam not once disputed China’s rule over the seas. You guys are self-hating asians who kiss america’s ass unlike China.
That’s not the logic they use dumbass. They use the Cairo declaration and claimed those island in 1947 as part of their war-time rewards.