China and Vietnam relations sink over oil rig in South China Sea

SO MUCH for theory that the search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 was bringing together the countries of the region in a new era of cooperation and goodwill.

Relations have deteriorated to their worst point in decades among our near neighbours after China positioned a monster oil rig in the South China Sea, in territorial waters claimed exclusively by Vietnam.

China sent scores of vessels to escort the rig to its contentious location, only 250km off the shore of Vietnam; Vietnam in turn sent 80 boats out to prevent the rig from drilling the area, near the Paracel Islands.

The first deepwater drilling rig developed in China, is pictured at 320 kilometres (200 miles) southeast of Hong Kong in the South China Sea. Vietnam warned China on May 6 it would take all necessary measures to defend its interests in the South China Sea if Beijing Source: AP

On May 4, Chinese vessels — some reportedly military — rammed Vietnamese boats, leading Hanoi to release photos of sailors who had been hospitalised in the deliberate collisions.

On Monday, Chinese and Vietnamese vessels blasted each other with high-powered water cannons. It looked slightly pathetic, but it was in deadly earnest.

There remains a tense standoff around the rig, with China refusing to budge. It has sent fighter planes over to let it be known it will not tolerate interference in the drilling.

The deliberate positioning of the rig in such a bitterly contested oil- and gas-rich territory is seen as China’s most aggressive recent attempt to assert sovereignty over the South China Sea, over which it stakes an 80 per cent claim.

Thousands of Vietnamese workers this week staged anti-Chinese protests, burning factories in industrial parks (apparently, wrongly targeting Taiwanese and Singaporean companies) as they raged against China for helping itself to what it sees as its resources.

Most of the world thinks China’s claims to the South China Sea are rapacious and unreasonable.

It stakes its claim in a construct known as the “Nine-dash Line”, a U-shaped line on the map that probes a long way south of the Chinese mainland, sweeping along the shores of Vietnam, down to Malaysia and Indonesia, and back up past the Philippines and Taiwan.

Since 2012, an image of the Nine-line Dash has appeared on all Chinese passports, which gives a sense of how deeply China covets the South China Sea, both for its resource and strategic value.

a Chinese ship, left, shoots water cannon at a Vietnamese vessel while a Chinese Coast Guard ship, centre, sails alongside in the South China Sea, off Vietnam's coast, on May 7 Source: AP

Vietnamese protest outside the Chinese Embassy on May 11 Source: AP

There are so many world-reaching side effects to this dispute they are hard to quantify: there is China v US; the various battles between China and other nations; and the overlapping claims between a multitude of nations in this crammed part of the world.

There is also questions on how long Australia can maintain neutrality in the dispute, and what role, if any, it can or should play.

Also at stake is also the future of ASEAN, the Association of South East Asian Nations, which seeks to unite 10 nations through dialogue and security cooperation.

ASEAN, which does not include China, issued a tepid communiqué at last weekend’s summit calling for restraint in the heavily quarrelled seas.

The communiqué did not even mention China and Vietnam by name; that is because ASEAN members are themselves deeply divided over the South China Sea, even though it is the most important issue the organisation faces.

The 10 ASEAN member nations include Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei and Vietnam, all of which lay claim to parts of the South China Sea claimed by China. Some of them have territorial disputes among themselves.

But member states Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia are more aligned with China. None of them have South China Sea interests and are thought to be one reason for ASEAN’s surprisingly mild statement on the China-Vietnam clashes.

The remaining ASEAN nation, Singapore, which also has no current claim to the South China Sea, is anxious that ASEAN not be seen to be taking sides in territorial disputes.

But Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Sunday there needed to be an urgent agreed code of conduct to stop escalation in the contested areas.

In a phone conversation with Foreign Minister Wang Yi, US Secretary of State John Kerry called China’s actions with the oil rig dangerously “provocative”, prompting China to warn the US to “act and speak cautiously”.

A large pack of protesters hold Vietnamese flags as they ride motorbikes down a road in Bien Hoa, Dong Nai province, Vietnam, as anti-China demonstrations on May 15 Source: AFP

Australia issued a statement on Wednesday urging all parties to use restraint in one of the world’s most troubling flashpoints.

“Australia does not take a position on competing claims in the South China Sea, but has a legitimate interest in the maintenance of peace and stability, respect for international law, unimpeded trade and freedom of navigation,” ran the DFAT statement.

Australia asked the competing governments “to clarify and pursue” territorial claims in accordance with international law and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

However, by backing an UNCLOS resolution, Australia is in fact taking a position.

Australia knows that China refuses to participate in any UN arbitration on the South China Sea. Nor will it bow to international law.

China claims to hold historical rights to the South China Sea that predate any modern laws or conventions. If China were to submit to UNCLOS or international law, it would likely lose much of the vast area it claims.

Instead, China stakes it claim by occupation, presence and belligerence.

It places men on platforms above lonely half-submerged atolls in order to prove ownership, and to maintain watch; and, as the Associated Press reported this week, it has started dredging and reclaiming land around an obscure reef on the Spratly Islands that is claimed by the Philippines.

It is building what appears to be an airstrip.

Anti-China protesters march while shouting slogans during a rally in downtown Ho Chi Minh City on May 11 Source:AFP

This week, Filipino authorities laid charges against nine Chinese fishermen for poaching hundreds of endangered Hawksbill and Green Sea turtles on the Spratlys; China responded that they were fishing in Chinese territory and demanded their release.

In March, China aggravated Indonesia by claiming parts of the Riau Islands, which were thought to lie well south of the Nine-dash Line, and which Indonesia claims.

Indonesia sent naval ships and has vowed to protect the islands with fighter planes, if necessary.

These disputes have been occurring for decades, without resolution and sometimes resulting in open violence, such as in 1988 when China sank three Vietnamese vessels at the cost of 73 lives as it forced its way into the Spratlys.

China has tried to deal with each country it is in dispute with bilaterally, rather than as an ASEAN collective. The non-Chinese states have mostly resisted these attempts at one-on-one negotiations, seeing them as a form of harassment designed to weaken them.

Dealing one-on-one with China, rather than as a unified force, could see individual nations make significant concessions to China. If that happened, the whole of the South China Sea would begin to fall China’s way.

And that is the fear with the oil rig: unless it is dislodged, it will set a precedent that stamps China’s sole rights to contested resources.

As ASEAN look increasingly vulnerable and indecisive in the face of China’s intrusions, some commentators suggest that member nations should turn to the US, and possibly Australia, to take a stronger part in first sorting out the intra-country maritime disputes that do not involve China.

One argument in The Diplomat is that if Vietnam, Brunei, the Philippines and Malaysia were to settle their disputes with each other, they could then face off, together, against China, as a much stronger bargaining collective.

Yet China would not welcome such an intervention, because it would mean that the US was in effect negotiating against China by proxy.

Protesters holding Vietnamese flags attempt to push down the front gate of a factory in Bien Hoa, Dong Nai province, as anti-China demonstrations on May 15 Source: AFP

Others see the US, which is currently pivoting to the Pacific and Asia after long years out of the region, being drawn in regardless. It has alliances with several key ASEAN nations, including the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and, now, increasingly, Vietnam, who are looking for help.

The US as well supports Taiwan, which also has claims to the South China Sea; and it is especially close to Japan, which is waging a separate virulent contest with China over territories in the East China Sea.

The US carries too much baggage to play the role of an independent umpire in the South China Sea.

Australia, on the other hand, could have a role. We have good relations with China, the US, and most of the ASEAN nations.

Our official position on the South China Sea is to be seen as a friend to all — and we are one of the few nations that can genuinely make that claim.

It would take China to reach out to Australia to ask it to take a neutral role, and that is not likely at this time. But if tensions further escalate, a mutually respected arbitrator may be needed to avoid deepening hostilities, if not open war.

Perhaps Australia has laid some good groundwork in the MH370 search, after all.