Vietnam has resolutely protested and China has resolutely rejected the protest—or what China’s Foreign Ministry calls “Vietnam’s so-called protest.”
Not only was China’s “professional and restrained” life-threatening attack on a Vietnamese fishing vessel entirely justified in the view of China’s Foreign Ministry, since Vietnamese vessels were “illegally” fishing near the Paracel Islands; but Vietnam’s protest of the attack also does not, in the view of China’s Foreign Ministry, even constitute an actual protest. It is, apparently, a fake protest.
If pressed to the wall, the so-called spokesman for China’s so-called Foreign Ministry would probably not stick to this implication.
China’s attack
But he would certainly stick to China’s often-repeated claim (or so-called claim) that China has the right to call the shots about who gets to do what in the vast majority of the South China Sea and the right to attack at will any vessels that do not seem to be honoring China’s so-called claim to this so-called authority (“Vietnam Accuses China of ‘Brutal’ Attack on Fishing Boat in South China Sea,” Time, October 3, 2024).
An alleged attack by Chinese law enforcement authorities on a Vietnamese fishing vessel from the central province of Quang Ngai resulted in injuries to 10 crewmen, including three that suffered broken bones, state media Tien Phong newspaper reported.
Vietnam has a long-standing territorial dispute in the South China Sea with China, which claims the majority of the area as its territory—an assertion that overlaps with separate claims by Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan as well as the Philippines.
“Vietnam is extremely concerned, indignant and resolutely opposes the brutal behavior of Chinese law enforcement forces against Vietnamese fishermen and fishing vessels operating in the Paracel archipelago of Vietnam,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Pham Thu Hang said in an emailed statement Wednesday evening….
Vietnam’s Tien Phong reported that the attackers were accused of seizing about four tons of seafood and smashing and removing equipment from the boat. Losses were estimated at 500 million dong ($20,220), it added.
Other countries in the region also have disputes with each other over this or that island or bit of water. But they don’t constantly attack each other because of these disagreements.
The Times report emphasizes the fact that China has in recent years passed laws or regulations “to enforce its claims in the South China Sea. That includes enacting new maritime patrol regulations earlier this year authorizing the detention of foreign ships and individuals law enforcement suspects of illegally entering what China considers to be its territorial waters.”
Take note?
The article quotes a professor, Carl Thayer, who says: “What this signals is the laws that China has passed right up through this year and very recently are now being applied. Everyone else should take note.”
No, nobody should take note. It doesn’t matter whether the Chinese government has enacted such-and-such self-authorization to bully other countries’ vessels navigating the South China Sea except with respect whatever propaganda value China can extract from its ongoing so-called claim that it is governed by a so-called “rule of law.”
Whenever convenient, the Chinese government ignores all laws nominally on its books, including laws about the “rights” that it supposedly guarantees to all citizens. For example, neither its “rule of law” nor any actual law will protect you from being imprisoned or enslaved for being a Uyghur.
The Chinese party-government has already conferred upon itself and tyrannically safeguards whatever authority it requires to do whatever it wants. Its actual operative standard determining whether to act in pursuit of its goals in a specific instance is “how much can we get away with”? Whether China has or does not have a law saying China can ram a ship and detain sailors, the situation is the same for the countries and vessels being attacked. It’s not as if China had been peaceful and beneficent in the region before passage of these new laws.
So, no, don’t take note of these attack-authorizing laws except as part of a study of Chinese propaganda and lies. Take note of the attacks and what is required for the attacked countries to defend themselves from China.
