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Vietnamese street protests following a ramming and water canon incident involving the coast guards of Vietnam and China off the Paracel Islands are resurfacing fears that military force might be a tenable option.
Generally peaceful street protests in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi the past week intended to present a united front against China. Some protesters, however, took the occasion to criticize the Vietnamese government's lack of assertiveness against the Chinese in the East Sea, Vietnam's name for the South China Sea.
Vietnamese officials earlier described China's action in continuing to drill for oil in waters Vietnam claims as its own is a violation of Vietnamese sovereignty. They noted that a military response would only be considered as a last resort.
The Chinese oil rig known as HD-981 continues to drill for oil in the disputed waters off the Paracel Islands that China has controlled since 1974.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, who was at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Myanmar last week, lambasted China for stationing an oil rig and ramming Vietnamese vessels in disputed waters of the East Sea.
During recent street actions, a few hundred Vietnamese protested peacefully outside the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi and assailed China's maritime aggression and continuing occupation of what they see as Vietnamese waters.
Analysts said the Vietnamese government is concerned that shared anti-China sentiment could unite angered citizens who dislike the Vietnamese government's foreign policies with those nurturing grievances over state-sponsored land grabs, ubiquitous state control and other sensitive issues.
Giap Van Duong, a commentator on Vietnamese current affairs in Hanoi, said the government should internationalize its maritime dispute with China by pursuing broad multilateral negotiations over the East Sea with other countries involved in maritime quarrels with China.
