By Shannon Tiezzi
Politburo member Le Hong Anh will be in China August 26 and 27, the first such visit since the oil rig crisis.
Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry announced Monday that Politburo member Le Hong Anh will visit China from August 26 to 27 as a special envoy of Nguyen Phu Trong, the secretary general of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV). A Foreign Ministry spokesperson told reporters that Anh would meet with Chinese leaders to discuss “measures to ease the situation, prevent the recurrence of recent tenses [sic], and enhance the relationship between the two Parties and two countries.” Anh was invited to visit China by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Ties between Vietnam and China have been strained since May, when China deployed an oil rig near the Paracel Islands in waters Hanoi claims as part of its exclusive economic zone. Over the next few months, the waters around the oil rig became the scene of numerous confrontations and collisions between Chinese and Vietnamese vessels. Meanwhile, anti-China sentiment in Vietnam boiled over into full-scale riots, damaging dozens of foreign factories (many of which were owned by Taiwanese or South Korean companies) in southern regions.
Anh’s visit to China will only be the second high-profile bilateral visit since the oil rig crisis — and the last one, State Councilor Yang Jiechi’s trip to Hanoi, didn’t go so well. Yang visited Vietnam in mid-June for meetings with leaders, including Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh. However, rather than thawing the relationship, Yang’s trip merely saw both sides dig in on their existing positions. Yang reiterated China’s commitment to protecting the oil rig and demanded that Vietnam stop its “harassment” of the vessel. Vietnamese officials, meanwhile, repeated their complaint that the oil rig was operating in violation of Vietnamese sovereignty and should be removed immediately.
Read the full story at The Diplomat