Sleepless in Hanoi

This Vietnamese film of the Chinese slaughter of Vietnamese troops by the Chinese in 1988, puts this story in perspective:




Vietnam orders submarines and warplanes from Russia

By Nga Pham
BBC Vietnamese Service

Vietnam has signed billion-dollar contracts to buy submarines and fighter jets from Russia, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has announced in Moscow.

The deals make Vietnam one of the key clients of the Russian arms industry.

The weapons purchases come at a time when disputes over sovereignty are increasing in the South China Sea, which Vietnam calls the East Sea.

Vietnam, China and other countries have competing claims over potentially oil and gas-rich island chains there.

See map showing rival claims in the South China Sea

"Vietnam signed contracts for the purchases of submarines and planes from the Russian side," the Vietnamese prime minister said, without elaborating.

Russian agency Interfax quoted unnamed sources as saying that Hanoi was to buy six diesel-electric Kilo-class submarines worth $2bn (£1.2bn).

Vietnam is already awaiting the delivery of eight Sukhoi Su-30MK2 fighter jets from Russia in 2010. It is considering ordering 12 more, Interfax quoted another Russian source as saying.

A regional defence analyst said the rising tension in the South China Sea was "clearly a source of concern" to Hanoi.

The submarine acquisition "would increase [Vietnam's] negotiating power in the maritime disputes", Professor Carlyle Thayer of the Australian Defence Force Academy said.

China Threatens Exxon Mobil

It should be obvious even to the most optimistic free trader that China is a special and dangerous situation that does not fit into the free trade dream. China has intentions that go beyond wanting to be a partner in trade. China is intent on domination and beating the west at its own game. So far so good for China. China is drilling American oil off Cuba, dominates the Panama Canal, stroking Chavez and institutionalizing itself in the Americas. China is not about fair trade or fair play or fair anything. China is out to win and is doing a very respectable job at it. Here is just another not too subtle example:

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China warns ExxonMobil: Drop deal with Vietnam
By MarketWatch

July 20, 2008

HONG KONG (AFP) -- China has warned U.S. oil giant ExxonMobil Corp.to drop an exploration deal in the seas off Vietnam and said the project could threaten any future mainland contracts, a Hong Kong newspaper reported Sunday.

Diplomats in Washington have contacted senior figures in the world's largest oil firm to protest the deal, which they say could be a breach of Chinese sovereignty, the Sunday Morning Post reported citing unnamed sources close to the U.S. firm.

"If it was simply a legal question it would be easy," one of the sources told the newspaper.

"Vietnam would probably prevail in international mediation. But it's political, too. China's concerns make the situation much more complicated for a company like Exxon ... China is a very important player in the international oil industry."

The dispute involves a preliminary co-operation agreement between state oil firm PetroVietnam and ExxonMobil covering exploration in the South China Sea off Vietnam's south and central coasts, the report said.

The Chinese protests are based on Beijing's historical claim to huge swathes of the South China Sea, the report said.

Last year, China criticized a joint deal between Vietnam and U.K. energy giant BP PLC near the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, saying the area has been an "indisputable part of Chinese territory since ancient times."

The report quoted Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung saying it needed to be "clearly asserted" that Hanoi's dealings with foreign oil partners fell entirely within Vietnam's legal rights and sovereignty.

China and Vietnam - who in 1979 fought a short border war after Vietnam expelled the Beijing-backed Khmer Rouge from Cambodia - also fought a brief naval battle in 1988 near the Spratly Islands.

Who is leaning towards whom?