(CPV) – China will end up losing many things if it pursues a policy to “rise up” at any cost, says Dr. Nguyen Hung Son, Deputy Director of the East Sea Institute under the Vietnam Diplomatic Academy.
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A Chinese coast guard vessel rams and fires water cannons on a Vietnamese fisheries surveillance ship. (Photo: CPV) |
He says in a commentary that if China continues to show off its military strength in the East Sea and totally disregards key interests of smaller, neighbouring countries in claiming sovereignty over other nations, it will have to forfeit important gains it has made.
China stands to lose its “soft power” – the diplomatic clout it has been cultivating for many years now. Among neighbouring countries, the image of friendly Chinese leaders will be sullied.
Latest developments show that China actions violating Vietnam’s sovereignty in the East Sea have not cooled. Over the past two months, China has consistently deployed over 100 ships of diverse kinds, including warships and military aircraft around its illegally placed Haiyang Shiyou-981 drilling rig, negatively impacting international maritime activities as well as disrupting Vietnamese fishermen’s operations in their traditional fishing grounds.
China has also resorted to violence, firing water cannons and ramming Vietnamese vessels for hundreds of times. These actions have damaged 17 Vietnamese fishing vessels, and one, fishing vessel DNa-90152 was sunk on May 26. China’s aggressive response to Vietnamese fisheries surveillance and coast guard vessels conducting law enforcement missions in Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone and continental shelf have injured tens of officials and fishermen.
On July 3, Vietnamese fishing boat QNg 94912 TS carrying 6 fishermen was seized by China.
Besides, it has deliberately disseminated wrong information among its own citizens by using the “U-line” in textbooks, using false arguments to “prove” that Vietnam’s Paracel and Spratly Archipelagos belong to China.
Recently, China issued a new map in which it unilaterally drew a 10-dotted line instead of the earlier 9-dotted line, with the intention of making itself a sea power and realise its “Chinese dream”.
In the diplomatic arena, China has continued to make baseless arguments, distorting the truth and trying to shift the blame on Vietnam.
These actions betray the so-called “China’s peaceful rise”, and have drawn widespread international condemnation. However, Beijing ignores everything and disregards international laws, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) that it has signed, as it and tramples on the legitimate interests of neighbouring countries including Vietnam.
According to international observers and experts, China does not have any legal and historic evidence to back its claims. Even on its unilaterally drawn map, it has shifted from the “9-dotted” line to the “10-dotted line”, showing a lack of consistency.
The “China’s peaceful rise” slogan has been raised in regional and world forums, but now, the question has to be raised: Is it a peaceful rise or the rise of an irresponsible major power using violence to eliminate other countries’ legitimate interests.
As a “rising” power and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, China should realise its responsibility towards neighbouring countries, and obey international laws and norms./.