From East Asia Intel, subscription.
Chinese blue water navy ambitions as well as its hunger for imported energy have apparently resulted in a new warning to the worlds largest corporation, ExxonMobil.
A Hong Kong newspaper says Beijings diplomats have threatened retaliation if ExxonMobil goes ahead with a preliminary agreement between the Vietnamese state oil firm PetroVietnam. The deal covers exploitation in the South China Sea off Vietnam's south and central coasts.
Beijing claims a huge swath of the South China Sea just east of the Indochina peninsula and west of the Philippines. And there is long history of clashes among the riparian powers with Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, Taiwan and China making claims. There have been a number of small military skirmishes in the past two decades. The most serious occurred in 1976, when China invaded and captured the Paracel Islands from Vietnam. In 1988, Chinese and Vietnamese navies clashed at Johnson Reef in the Spratly Islands, sinking several Vietnamese boats and killing more than 70 sailors.
Last year, Chinese media targeted an agreement between Vietnam and BP near the Spratlys maintaining that those islands had been an indisputable part of Chinese territory since ancient times. The Spratlys, like other island groups in the region, are uninhabited rocky outcroppings and coral but are in an area that may contain large oil and gas deposits.
The islands also lie directly across the major shipping route for oil from the Persian Gulf to markets in China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Beijing signed a "Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea." The united front of Southeast Asian countries, concerned that Beijing might be strengthening its claims over much of the South China Sea, called for restraint and strict observance of international law in a high-level meeting with China in January 2000.
Yeah, call for restraint from the Chicoms. That is a winning strategy.
All parties, theoretically, agreed to exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities in the South China Sea that would complicate or escalate disputes and affect peace and stability, including, among others, refraining from inhabiting the presently uninhabited islands, reefs, shoals, cays and other features and to handle their differences in a constructive manner. But ASEANs effort at a joint position vis-a-visa Beijing fell apart when China and the Philippines began discussing possible joint exploration for petroleum in the disputed Spratlys.
"Yes, we agree to a peaceful resolution. Now if you don't mind, please step aside. We have a drilling ship to move into position."
Backing up its claims, China has sent naval vessels into the area and constructed crude buildings on some of the islands. Reconnaissance photos taken by the Philippine air force show radar systems not normally associated with the protection of fishermen, as Beijing claimed. China maintains a base on Mystic Island, one of the Spratly group. All this fits into a strategy revealed by aerial photography recently when a giant new secret Chinese submarine base was exposed on Chinas Hainan Island just north of the disputed waters.
It may be significant that the most recent Chinese warnings, according to the South China Morning Post, were made verbally by Chinese diplomats in Washington. The hint was that ExxonMobils future business interests on the Mainland could be in jeopardy.
On the Vietnamese side, China is an ancient enemy of Hanoi dating back over centuries even though the two countries were allied after the Chinese Communists came to power in 1949. That lasted through the two Vietnam wars, one between the French and the Vietnamese and the other the U.S. engagement. But it fell apart in 1979 when the two countries fought a brief border war after Vietnam occupied Cambodia another instance of an ancient and bitter rivalry and overthrew the pariah Khmer Rouge regime, a staunch ally of Beijing.
Beijing, champion of human rights, threw its lot in with the Khmer Rouge. Also the junta in Burma, Zim Bob, Sudan. The list goes on and on.
China-Vietnam relations have since improved with the Vietnamese adopting what many call the post-Deng Xiaoping China model of development. On June 21, the Vietnamese Communist Party newspaper Nhan Dan reported Vietnamese Communist Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh had successfully concluded an official visit to China at the invitation of the Chinese Party General Secretary and President Hu Jintao.
In fact, Vietnam and China have agreed to cooperate in oil and gas exploration in the Gulf of Tonkin just off the northern Vietnamese major port of Haiphong. But still, last year BP halted plans to conduct exploration work off the southern Vietnamese coast, citing territorial tensions caused by Chinese claims. And in December, China chided Vietnam after protests in front of the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi proclaimed that the Spratly and Paracel islands belonged to the Vietnamese.
The Hong Kong newspaper quoted unidentified sources saying Exxon Mobil was confident of Vietnam's sovereign rights to the blocks it was now seeking to explore. But it is clear that Exxon Mobil could not dismiss China's warnings out of hand given the rapidly increasing Chinese market for crude oil and oil products. The newspaper said China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to queries about the situation, and an Exxon Mobil spokesman refused comment. However, Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung came back with the assertion that Hanoi's dealings with foreign oil partners fell entirely within Vietnam's legal rights and sovereignty.
Got to be able to back up your words. This whole episode just goes to show that we need to get off of foreign oil. Otherwise it is just intimidation and blackmail by psychopath oil ticks. We have the resources and the smarts. We just need the will to do it. |
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is likely to visit Vietnam and China next week on an unprecedented trip by plane, a news report said Thursday.
Seeking to keep up the momentum that has made Vietnam the fastest- growing economy in Southeast Asia, the ruling Communist Party on Tuesday reappointed its top leader to deepen market reforms and fight corruption.