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NHẬP TỪ CẦN TRA VÀO Ô
Saturday, May 17, 2014
By HAU DINH
ABOARD VIETNAMESE COAST GUARD
SHIP 4033 (AP) — Each day the Vietnamese ships tried to get close to the
rig. And each day they were driven back by the much larger Chinese
ships.
But before they
sped away, laboring engines spewing black smoke, the Vietnamese
delivered a message: "Attention! Attention! We are warning you about
your provocative act," blasted out a recording from a loudspeaker in
Vietnamese, Chinese and English. "We demand you respect Vietnam's
sovereignty. Please immediately halt your activities and leave
Vietnamese waters."
Occasionally
colliding with or firing water cannons at each other, Vietnamese and
Chinese ships have been shadow boxing in a sun-dazzled patch of the
South China Sea since May 1, when Beijing parked a hulking, $1 billion
deep sea oil rig, drawing a furious response from Vietnam.
Vietnam,
ten times smaller than its northern neighbor and dependent on it
economically, needs all the help it can get in the dispute. Its leaders
believe international opinion is on their side. This week they invited
foreign journalists to get a closer look at the standoff, the most
serious escalation between the countries in years over their overlapping
claims.
Vietnam is determined
to defend what it regards as its sovereign territory against China,
which insists that most of the South China Sea — including the Paracel
Islands it took from U.S.-backed South Vietnam in 1974 — belongs to it.
But Hanoi lacks options in dealing with Beijing, as China uses it
burgeoning economic and military might to press its claims in the seas.
Vietnam
has accused Chinese vessels of deliberately and dangerously ramming its
ships. TV footage recorded last week from a Vietnamese ship showed a
Chinese vessel smashing into the stern of the Vietnamese ship then
backing up and ramming it again, damaging its side. The Chinese Ministry
of Foreign Affairs on Friday released three photographs purportedly
showing a Vietnamese vessel ramming a Chinese maritime ship. The media
onboard this week did not witness any ramming.
"It is not that we want to
be in confrontation with the Chinese, but it's our duty to carry out
daily patrols in Vietnamese territory," said Col. Le Trung Thanh, the
skipper of the Vietnamese coast guard ship 4033. "We want to get close
to the rig to persuade them that their actions are illegal and they must
leave Vietnam's water unconditionally."
That
seems unlikely, however many patrol boats Hanoi sends to the area, or
pleads its case to the world. For China, a withdrawal would signal
weakness.
Beijing has said it
plans to keep the rig until August. While most analysts think neither
side has any interest in an armed conflict, the longer the confrontation
lasts, the greater the risk of an unplanned incident that could lead to
a shooting match.
In
1974, China ousted the South Vietnam navy from the Paracel Islands,
close to where the rig is currently deployed, killing 75 South
Vietnamese sailors. The two countries fought a brief but bloody border
war in 1979. In 1988, 64 Vietnamese sailors were killed in another
skirmish in the nearby Spratly Islands, where territorial spats between
China and the Philippines have recently heated up.
Beijing
has accused Hanoi of not doing enough to stop the violence. On Friday,
it criticized Vietnam for organizing the media trip.
"It
is clear that the aim of the Vietnamese side is to escalate the
situation and create tension, or in other words, to generate media hype
and put up a show in front of the international audience," said Ouyang
Yujing, the director general of the Chinese Foreign Ministry's
Department of Ocean and Boundary Affairs.
Vietnam's
Communist Party has been trying to leverage its links with the party in
China to quietly resolve their differences, mindful of the economic
importance of good relations. Just last month, one of the coast guard
ships stationed close to the rig took part in joint fishery patrols with
Chinese vessels in the Gulf of Tonkin, said Vietnam's coast guard Col.
Dinh Quoc Ruan.
Unlike in the Paracels, the two countries settled their maritime border in the Gulf of Tonkin in 2000.
Crew members boarded each other's boats to share fruit with each other and take photos, Ruan said.
"I'm
not surprised when the Chinese switched from being friends to being
opposed so quickly," he said. "Being friends with China is not so easy."
___
Associated Press writers Chris Brummitt in Hanoi, Vietnam, and Jack Chang in Beijing contributed to this report.
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