Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi Wednesday urged Vietnam not to attempt to further complicate and aggravate the current maritime friction, after thousands of Vietnamese protesters set foreign-owned factories ablaze in the country's south to protest China's oil drilling in the South China Sea.
Wang made the remarks during a phone conversation with his Indonesian counterpart Marty Natalegawa. "China's position on safeguarding its legitimate sovereign rights and interests is firm and clear and will not change," he said, according to the foreign ministry website.
Haiyang Shiyou 981, a China National Offshore Oil Corporation owned oil drilling rig, has been operating in waters 17 nautical miles south of Zhongjian Island, part of the Xisha Islands, from May 2. The operation will continue until August 15.
Vietnam sent 36 vessels that rammed Chinese vessels 171 times in five days from May 3 to 7, Yi Xianliang, deputy director-general of the Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs at the foreign ministry, revealed last week.
Wang called the ramming "barbaric" and said the violent disruptions are why the situation has become tense. He noted that China and Vietnam were conducting necessary communication on the current situation.
According to Wang, normal oil drilling activities by the Chinese company had already started in the Xisha Islands and its contiguous zone 10 years ago.
The drilling operation is in the waters of the Xisha Islands, over which China has complete sovereignty, said Zhou Hongjun, a professor of international law at the East China University of Politics and Law in Shanghai. "It is not a 'disputed area' as it was taken back in the 1974 Battle of the Xisha Islands from then Republic of South Vietnam," he told the Global Times.
Zhou noted that Vietnam's claim has no legal grounds and China should insist on its firm standings to protect its sovereignty and jurisdiction.
Mild protests in industrial zones of the southern Vietnamese provinces of Binh Duong and Dong Nai escalated into riots on Tuesday. Protesters rampaged in the zones packed with foreign factories, set them on fire and looted many, targeting specifically Chinese ones.
Tran Van Nam, vice chairman of the Binh Duong People's Committee, told the local VNExpress online newspaper Wednesday that extremists provoked the crowd, which caused the closure of more than 1,000 factories while 15 were burnt down.
Nam said around 19,000 workers joined the anti-China protest, and that "the province will strictly handle those who took advantage of the situation to provoke, disturb and cause damage to assets of people, companies and the state."
Police detained 500 people "caught red-handed looting, stealing and setting fire to factories," Le Xuan Truong of the Binh Duong police told AFP.
The Chinese Embassy to Vietnam issued safety alerts to Chinese citizens and companies on Tuesday, telling them to refrain from unnecessary outings and it also launched emergency security measures.
Huang Xuejuan, a secretary of the Chinese Business Association in Ho Chi Minh City, which coordinates businesses in the south, told the Global Times Wednesday that a dozen Chinese companies in the Binh Duong industrial zones were affected.
"Some Chinese have flown back to China, some went to Cambodia. A number of companies suspended operations today," said Huang.
Chinese kitchen appliance giant Supor said employees and factories at its Binh Duong base are safe and the company had taken immediate measures under the instruction of the consulate, Li Hui, a press officer from Supor, told the Global Times via e-mail.
In addition to companies from the Chinese mainland, many Taiwan firms also sustained serious damage. Liu Yu-hsing, secretary-general of the Taiwan Business Association in Ho Chi Minh City, said that they do not have a figure for their financial losses now, but it would be huge.
"Many protesters rode on motorcycles while waving iron bars or sticks. They rushed into the offices, destroyed computers, and looted valuable items," he told the Global Times Wednesday.
An employee of a Chinese company, who requested anonymity, told the Global Times that the protesters smashed the gates and shop signs of his company while shouting loudly.
Both Huang and Liu said order was mostly restored Wednesday after the embassy and the organizations requested police intervention. Huang said she still saw protesters on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City Wednesday, and an increased police presence.
"I heard that provinces can deploy the army if similar riots happen again," said Liu.
As the riot was evolving, companies from other countries were also reported to be influenced.
A Singaporean foreign ministry spokesperson said Wednesday that it requested the Vietnamese government to act immediately to restore law and order in the Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Parks I and II in Binh Duong.
Seoul also asked Vietnam to ensure the safety of South Korean residents in the regions, according to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency.
The riots marked nadir for relations between China and Vietnam in the South China Sea, and if the standoff continues, Vietnam could not bear the consequences as it violated the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, said Zhou.
AFP said Hanoi usually tightly controls demonstrations but recently allowed mass rallies against Beijing.
Sun Xiaoying, a professor with the Guangxi Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that the strong nationalism showcased in the looting is a result of Vietnam's constant propaganda about its claim to the islands.
"Sovereignty claims to the Xisha Islands emerged after Vietnam's northern and southern part united [in 1976], and it has been taking advantage of the US Asia pivot strategy in recent years. And China's oil drilling provides an excuse for Hanoi to provoke tension," he said.