There wasn’t a lot of information regarding this topic online, only the same three small paragraphs with the exact same information repeating in all of the websites. But, since I found this story slightly interesting and relatable to our class discussions I thought I would blog about it.
An area called the Paracels, in the South China Sea is claimed with sovereignty by Vietnam. But, this area has been occupied by China since 1974. The China oil company has recently opened bidding for oil exploration near this island. And, prior to this they have conducted live firing exercises near Paracels. Not only that, but they have also started to plan on ways to expand tourism in the area.
On Friday, the Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry gave a statement saying how unhappy they were, and how China’s actions were severely violating the sovereignty that they have over the area.
So what do you think? Should Vietnam really be getting angry over something that has been going on since the 1970s? Or are they in the right telling China to back up since they do have sovereignty?
I think they definitely have the right to tell China how they feel, but that's not to say it'll necessarily do anything. China is very stubborn about everything so I highly doubt they'll make any changes to what they're doing. Although I do agree that Vietnam should be able to maintain their sovereignty in that area; they should have made a bigger deal when this problem was starting in the 70s. Now it's kind of too late to do anything that'll make the Chinese government actually listen.
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ReplyDeleteI understand that Vietnam has sovereignty over the area, but if Chinese are mainly populating the land...then who really owns it? Even though China doesn't need any more land, it seems to me like they have more rights to this area, especially if they've been there since 1974.
To me, this issue sounds like its probably not really about the oil exploration and the firing exercises. I think there has probably been a lot of dispute between China and Vietnam about who should really own it, perhaps more passive aggressively, and these events just sparked an explosive argument between the two. (Like when you're mad at someone and they finally do something stupid enough that you have to have someone hold your earrings so that you can mess up their face.)
Personally, I think if Vietnam really wanted to have full control over this land, they should have been more assertive and drove out the Chinese people, populated it with Vietnamese people, and then there may not be this mess. I feel like this weird shared space is giving both countries mixed messages and they really ought to sort this out.
I don't see why this would be an issue now. Vietnam isn't going to accomplish much by claiming that China has infringed. The only reason I see for Vietnam making a statement is that they are maybe asking for foreign support in helping them reclaim their land, but I think it would be a bold move to back Vietnam up in thi case.
ReplyDeleteI agree, that it's kind of a waste of their time to get all worked up about this now.. if it was a real issue that the Chinese were occupying this land, they should have sorted it out in 1974. Is Vietnam just super desperate for oil all of a sudden that they want to take back what's "theirs"?
ReplyDeleteChina has too much power. They will get away with what they want. Vietnam can get as worked up as they want, nothing is going to stop the chinese.
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