HO
CHI MINH CITY - The Spratly archipelago, a regional
flashpoint in the South China Sea, is in danger of
erupting into conflict again as the six rival claimants
to the islands accuse one another of taking provocative
actions - such as arranging sightseeing tours to
military outposts, scuba diving and setting up
"bird-watching stands". The main contenders are China
and Vietnam.
Last week, China's temper flared
over an announcement by a Vietnamese travel company that
starting in April, it would take tourists out to the
disputed islands for what it called a routine tour of
the country's military outposts there. In addition to
Vietnam, five of the claimants have military garrisons
on islands and reefs in the Spratly chain.
China
calls them the Nansha Islands, Vietnam calls them the
Truong Sa and Spratlys, and they are generally known in
the West as the Spratlys.
The travel company,
based in Vietnam's central Khanh Hoa province, said it
had received support from the country's defense ministry
to organize scuba diving package tours as part of its
tourist itinerary to the contested stretch of islets,
reefs, shoals and sand banks, referred to by Hanoi as
the Truong Sa islands.
According to a spokesman
for the Vietnam National Tourism Administration, many
people already have registered for the inaugural trip,
which is due to leave Ho Chi Minh City on April 18 or
19.
Before announcing its package tours,
however, Hanoi itself frowned at Taiwan's building of a
bird-watching stand on a Vietnamese-claimed atoll and
accused Taipei of going on a "land-grabbing expansion"
campaign.
The Spratlys are a cluster of islands
and islets rich in marine resources, oil and hydrocarbon
deposits.
Aside from Vietnam and China, the
Spratlys are being claimed in whole or in part by
Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and the Philippines, which all
want the right to exploit resources in the area, to
exercise military, geographic and economic sovereignty
over the islands and to control one of the world's
busiest shipping lanes.
All have signed a code
of conduct, which was supposed to prohibit the
construction of new structures on the disputed islands,
but most claimants have violated the code and continue
to build structures or put up markers in the area. The
exchange between China and Vietnam is the latest
reminder that the Spratlys row continues to simmer,
despite some headway on managing the conflict by the six
claimants.
Predictably, China, which plays the
role of regional big brother and which has occupied new
reefs since the 1990s, is peeved over Vietnam's latest
actions and has accused Hanoi of infringing on its
sovereignty by planning tours to areas of the Spratlys
known in China as the Nansha Islands.
"China has
indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and
surrounding waters, and the move taken by Vietnam has
infringed on China's territorial sovereignty," said
China's foreign ministry spokesman Kong Quan in a news
briefing in Beijing.
But Vietnam's foreign
ministry spokesman Le Dung rejected China's claim.
"China's claim violated Vietnam's sovereignty over the
islands and did not conform to the real situation," he
said. "Vietnam has time and again asserted its
indisputable sovereignty over the Truong Sa [Spratlys]
archipelago," he asserted.
Last weekend, during
a visit to Singapore, Vietnamese Defense Minister Pham
Van Tra was adamant. "The Spratlys are part of
Vietnamese territory," he said. "We have the right to
take tourists to that place."
Apparently others
in the region feel that way as well. In the 1990s,
Malaysia developed one reef in the Spratlys chain as a
scuba diving and leisure resort.
Thus, it is not
without reason that the Spratlys has earned the title of
regional "flashpoint". And in the past, claims and
counterclaims have resulted in violent conflict.
China has clashed with Vietnam several times
over the Spratlys. The most serious skirmish was in 1988
when the Chinese and Vietnamese navies clashed at
Johnson Reef; China sank several Vietnamese ships and
more than 70 sailors perished. The most recent encounter
was in August 2002, when Vietnamese troops based on one
islet fired warning shots at Philippine military
reconnaissance planes circling overhead.
But
later that year, China and the 10 members of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) - which
includes four of the Spratly claimants - signed a
unprecedented voluntary accord in an effort to work
things out without violence.
The complication
now, however, is that governments continue to stake
their claims through leisure tours and bird watching
stands.
While China and Vietnam were engaging in
their verbal spat over the diving tours, for instance,
Taiwan sent a speedboat with eight workers out to a
disputed reef and built what Vietnam described as a
small house on stilts.
Vietnam's foreign
ministry spokesman spokesman Le Dung criticized Taiwan
for erecting the structure on Banthan coral reef,
calling it a "grave violation" of Vietnam's territorial
sovereignty. And Dung said the Taiwan side would be held
responsible for all consequences that might arise from
the move.
However, Richard Shih, director
general of information and cultural affairs of Taiwan's
"foreign ministry", said his government had no intention
of creating tension and said the so-called house was in
reality "an environment station, surveying migrating
birds". Shih also said his government had already
expressed its views to Vietnam.
Though regional
tensions over the Spratlys pale in comparison to those
over the Korean Peninsula and the Taiwan Strait, it is
impossible to predict the actions of China and Vietnam
in case of a prolonged impasse in their competing
territorial claims - or a provocation.
Vietnamese foreign affairs spokesman Le Dung
called on China to avoid complicating the situation,
saying the two sides should observe the 2002 ASEAN-China
Declaration on the conduct of the South China Sea
nations, and cease issuing unnecessary statements over
the islands issue.
Both countries have agreed to
meet early this month for their eighth round of talks
over the South China Sea. But several developments in
Vietnam have put Chinese negotiators - who at one point
laid claim to 80 percent of the South China Sea - in a
difficult situation.
Early this year, museums in
the central provinces of Khanh Hoa and Danang held
exhibitions of ancient maps, royal ordinances and
official documents, asserting Vietnam's sovereignty over
the Spratlys.
In Ho Chi Minh City, 65-year-old
researcher Nguyen Nha publicized his doctoral thesis on
Vietnam's claim over the Spratlys, declaring he would
challenge international researchers, Chinese in
particular, to disprove his findings, using scientific
and historical documents.
"Since the 17th
century, Vietnam has many official maps and documents
testifying to Vietnamese presence on Truong Sa islands
[the Spratlys], but China has no similar proof," he
said.
