By Chau Nguyen
The return of the oil rig and rapid land reclamation belie China’s South China Sea rhetoric.
The latest oil rig gesturing shows an inconsistency between rhetoric and action in China’s policy in the South China Sea. Together with its mass reclamation activities, the use of the oil rig is part and parcel of coercive diplomacy. It affirms China’s territorial ambition in the highly strategic seawater. Still, though, it is hard to see the situation escalating to the point of conflict.
China’s Haiyang Shiyou 981 oil rig is back, following on from last year’s headline dispute with Vietnam. Only this time, the rig is being reintroduced in timely fashion, just weeks before the first visit by the general secretary of Vietnam’s Communist Party to Washington. According to reports, the platform is currently located 17°03’75’’ North latitude and 109°59’05’’ East longitude.
While the rig’s present location is not as close to Vietnam as it was last year, the intent is fairly obvious. Yet it is unlikely that Vietnam will overreact to this provocation. It has no immediate reason to do so and it is, after all, accustomed to Chinese displays of power. For Hanoi, continuing an approach of carefully balancing and engaging China and more distant powers seems prudent.
Read the full story at The Diplomat