By Teddy Pham
Expectations that Hanoi will enter Washington’s embrace appear unrealistic as the pro-Chinese camp prevails in Vietnam.
The recent tactical withdrawal of a giant Chinese oil rig from waters claimed by both Beijing and Hanoi does not herald a change in China’s strategy of staking out claims in large swaths of the South China Sea that have bedeviled the two ideologically communist allies over the past years. The retreat has come at a convenient juncture for the pro-Chinese faction of the Vietnamese Communist Party to preempt any planned legal action against China and thwart the highly-anticipated alliance with the U.S.
On July 15, the state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation announced that the $1 billion oil rig had finished drilling in disputed waters near the Paracel Islands, over which both Beijing and Hanoi claim sovereignty. The rig will be relocated closer to Hainan Island, China’s southernmost province, after having successfully discovered “signs of oil and gas,” the Chinese company said in a statement.
The rig set off a geopolitical storm when it was deployed on May 2 into what Vietnam calls its 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone and continental shelf in the potentially resources- and oil-rich South China Sea. Chinese and Vietnamese ships regularly tailed one another off the waters near the rig, while anti-China protests erupted into violence in central and southern Vietnam. The resulting riots left hundreds of foreign-owned factories vandalized and four Chinese nationals dead.
Read the full story at The Diplomat