06/11/2014, 00.00
VIETNAM - CHINA - UNITED NATIO
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South China Sea: UN to mediate in Hanoi and Beijing dispute

by Paul N. Hung

The international community steps in to calm tensions over territorial conflicts in the region, in accordance with the law. In recent days, the two countries have submitted their dossier to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Meanwhile, Beijing continues its policy of "imperialism" aimed at colonization - military and commercial - of the seas.

Hanoi (AsiaNews) - The UN is attempting to mediate between Hanoi and Beijing, to calm territorial tensions between the two South China Sea nations, particularly in the area surrounding the Paracel Islands. The UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric has appealed to both parties to resolve the dispute in a peaceful manner and in accordance with international law and norms. Last week, both nations sent a dossier to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, emphasizing their claims and denouncing an "aggressive" attitude in the Asia-Pacific region which has been at the center of a fierce controversy for some time now.

The standoff between Hanoi and Beijing took a turn for the worse after China's decision in early May, to build a platform for oil exploration, the Haiyang Shiyou 981 off the east coast of Vietnam. A move that has exacerbated nationalism of a large portion of the Vietnamese population , which has responded with street protests that have taken a violent drift characterized by riots and assaults that have led to at least 2 deaths and 140 injured. China's decision to place the first of May last a platform for oil exploration, the Haiyang Shiyou 981, off the east coast of Vietnam. In response, Hanoi promoted nationalist protests, targeted attacks against foreign companies, burnings and assaults that killed at least two people dead and over 140 injured. The following days also saw Chinese naval assaults on Vietnamese fishing vessels.

International policy experts confirm the growing expansionist ambitions of China in the Asia-Pacific region, with the goal - by 2020 - to monopolize the entire area and its businesses. The Communist leaders in Beijing are planning to build an artificial island in the Fiery Cross Reef, a group of cliffs and land in the area of ​​the Spratly Islands. China intends to build a military base for ships and fighter jets, through which it would dominate the whole area and put the Philippines and Vietnam in a corner. In 1974, the area was the scene of a Chinese military attack on a Hanoi garrison which left 74 soldiers dead today celebrated as "Vietnamese heroes".

The islands are of strategic importance for Beijing to control a trade route worth over 6 billion dollars a year. The artificial island would be twice as large compared to the U.S. military base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean and would result in the project to establish an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the Eastern sea in the coming years.

According to Vietnamese activists and nationalists, China has taken advantage of instability and conflict in the Ukraine, Syria, Iran and North Korea to begin its project to colonize the seas- through the installation of the oil rig. A project that stands in stark contrast to the Declaration of Conduct of Parties in the eastern seas (DOC) and the UN Convention on the Seas (UNCLOS)

Vietnam and the Philippines have been increasingly worried about Beijing's imperialism in the South China and East China seas. The Chinese government claims most of the sea (almost 85 per cent), including sovereignty over the disputed Spratly and Paracel islands, in opposition to Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia. In recent months, China has used various political, economic and diplomatic means to hamper non-Chinese vessels from fishing or moving through the disputed waters. For the United States, which backs the claims of Southeast Asia nations, Beijing's so-called 'cow tongue' line is both "illegal" and "irrational". Anyone with a hegemonic sway over the region would have a strategic advantage, in terms of seabed (oil and gas) development, but also in trade since two thirds of the world's maritime trade transit through it.

 

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