Vietnamese in anti-China protests

Thousands of Vietnamese have torched factories and smashed windows in industrial zones in the south of the country in protest against Chinese oil drilling in a part of the South China Sea claimed by Vietnam.

Tensions have been ratcheted higher in the resource- rich South China Sea after a Chinese state-owned oil company placed a giant oil rig in an area claimed by Vietnam.

Each country has also accused the other of ramming its ships near the disputed Paracel Islands, which China seized during the China-Vietnam War in 1974.

Taiwanese companies
Most of the damage during the rampage seems to have affected Taiwanese companies in the industrial zones in Binh Duong and Dong Nai provinces as rioters mistook the firms to be Chinese-owned. Korean and Japanese properties were also damaged.

“About 19,000 workers were demonstrating against China’s violation of Vietnam’s territorial waters,” Tran Van Nam, vice-chairman of the Binh Duong people’s committee, told local media.

“Some workers turned angry, destroying companies’ gates and entering the compounds and asking other workers to join a strike.”

China’s ongoing claims to vast areas of water and mostly uninhabited islets in the South China Sea and East China Sea have caused tensions with its neighbours and other countries in the region, including Japan, South Korea, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

Sports shoe maker Yue Yuen, which supplies footwear to Adidas, Nike and other international brands, said it had suspended production in Vietnam because of the protests.

Disputed islands
China also began a construction project in the disputed Spratly Islands, drawing a formal protest from the Philippines, which said the move breached a longstanding pledge not to build on any of the South China Sea's contested islands.

Philippine foreign affairs department spokesman Charles Jose said China had been moving earth and materials to Johnson South Reef, known by the Chinese as Chigua and which the Philippines calls Mabini Reef, in recent weeks.

According to comments from Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi on the Chinese foreign ministry website, China has urged Vietnam to “calm down” and respect China’s sovereignty.

He made the remarks during a phone call with Indonesian foreign minister Marty Natalegawa.