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Kristine Kwok

China’s gigantic oil rig, Haiyangshihou 981, is no stranger to the Vietnamese.
Its latest appearance near the Southeast Asian nation’s coast renewed focus on crucial question: how should Vietnam deal with its aggressive yet economically important neighbour without angering it?
Analysts said the recent deployment of the oil rig, together with test flights of civilian planes over the disputed Spratly Islands, in the South China Sea, were part of China’s vigorous efforts to further establish its presence in the area.
READ MORE: Vietnam warns Beijing over oil rig activities in South China Sea
However, the timing of the deployment – coinciding with the Vietnamese Communist Party’s meeting to pick new leaders – has touched a nerve in the country.
“Beijing is trying to give a warning to the next leadership,” said a Vietnamese diplomat, referring to the recent sighting of the oil rig at the mouth of the Gulf of Tonkin and civilian flights to a newly completed airfield at Fiery Cross Reef.
The reef is controlled by China, but also claimed by Vietnam, the Philippines and Taiwan.
The deep-water rig, which in 2014 caused the worst diplomatic crisis between the two neighbours in decades, occupies a disputed area that is yet to be delimited, according to the Vietnamese foreign ministry.
Hanoi has called on Beijing to stop drilling and withdraw the rig, but the Chinese foreign ministry has insisted it was operating in China’s “undisputed” waters.
According to China’s Maritime Safety Administration, the gigantic structure will remain in the area until March 10.
READ MORE: Vietnam’s ‘stormy’ leadership tussle bares nation’s conflict over liberalism and taking a hardline over South China Sea dispute, analysts say
The rig was now located about 66 nautical miles from Hainan Island and 110 nautical miles from the coast of Danang, according to Taylor Fravel, a political science professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The Vietnamese diplomat said the deployment violated an agreement between the two leaderships’ that no unilateral actions should be taken in the area before both sides could resolve the border dispute in the area outside the Gulf of Tonkin.
Decades of negotiations between the two neighbours have resulted in only a small delineation of the disputed areas in the Gulf.
Analysts said Beijing had been pushing for joint development, but Hanoi preferred to resolve the territorial dispute first.
“Perhaps by deploying the oil rig to the area, Vietnam would be forced to be more forthcoming on joint development,” said Xu Liping, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Fravel said the deployment most likely reflected China’s plans to develop offshore oil and gas, rather than sending a message aimed at the congress, which this week will decide a new leadership that will govern for the next five years.
“Likewise, the test flights are a natural progression of the land reclamation and development projects that China has undertaken on the features it occupies in the Spratly Islands,” Fravel said.
READ MORE: China moves controversial oil rig closer to Vietnam coast in disputed South China Sea
The reclamations have drawn protests from Vietnam and other countries. Relations between the two ideological allies nosedived in 2014 after the same oil rig was parked at an area much closer to Vietnam coast than its current location.
Although the two sides have patched things up, mutual distrust lingers.
As Vietnam’s Communist elites gather in Hanoi this week to discuss the country’s future, analysts said Beijing’s ill-timed behaviour highlighted the dilemma of living with an aggressive neighbour.
“It will highlight the South China Sea disputes as a major security concern for Vietnam and it will heighten the Vietnamese perception of China as threat,” said Le Hong Hiep, a visiting fellow at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.
However, unlike the 2014 crisis, which saw an unprecedented scale of violent protests in Vietnam, Hanoi has also put a leash on Vietnamese media coverage of the oil rig deployment this time, allowing only reports based on information released by the foreign ministry, said Carl Thayer, an Emeritus Professor at the University of New South Wales.
“I don’t think the [Vietnamese] leadership wants to confront China, they want to work with China,” Thayer said.



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South China Sea

Chinese oil rig’s return in South China Sea, off coast of Vietnam, touches nerve in Hanoi 

FILE - In this May 7, 2012 file photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, Haiyang Shiyou oil rig, the first deep-water drilling rig developed in China, is pictured at 320 kilometers (200 miles) southeast of Hong Kong in the South China Sea. Vietnam said on its Foreign Ministry's website late Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016, China has moved an oil rig into disputed waters in the South China Sea in a move that could result in a repeat the 2014 stand-off between the communist neighbors. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Jin Liangkuai, File) NO SALES

(140527) -- SANSHA, May 27, 2014 (Xinhua) -- Photo taken on May 17, 2014 shows the site of China's rig 981, which is 17 nautical miles away from Zhongjian Island, administrated by Sansha City, south China's Hainan Province. Rig 981 started the second stage of drilling operation on Tuesday in the South China Sea. (Xinhua/Zhao Yingquan) (wf)

China’s placing of its oil rig in disputed waters near Vietnam in the South China Sea follows a clash between the nations over the oil rig in 2014. Photo: Xinhua

Vietnam warns Beijing over oil rig activities in South China Sea

Haiyang Shiyou oil rig, the first deep-water drilling rig developed in China. Photo: AP

Vietnam’s ‘stormy’ leadership tussle bares nation’s conflict over liberalism and taking a hardline over South China Sea dispute, analysts say

(FILES) This file picture taken on May 20, 2010 shows Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung (L) and National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Phu Trong (R) standing talking prior to the opening of the National Assembly's summer session in Hanoi. In the staid world of communist politics Nguyen Tan Dung -- who is likely to be named to another term as Vietnamese prime minister this week in January 2011 -- has brought ambition and media-savvy, observer say. AFP PHOTO/HOANG DINH Nam

A female worker tends to flowers in front of a large poster featuring the up-coming national congress of the ruling Vietnam Communist Party (VCP) at a public park in downtown Hanoi on January 8, 2016. The PCV is expected to hold its key national meeting in two weeks to elect the country's new top leaders. AFP PHOTO / HOANG DINH NAM

epa05090905 A man walks past a poster promoting The 70th anniversary of the first general National Assembly election in Hanoi, Vietnam, 07 January 2016. The Vietnamese Communist Party holds its National Congress every five years. The 12th National Congress of Vietnam's Communist Party which runs from 20 to 28 January 2016 will choose the party's new leadership. EPA/LUONG THAI LINH

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung (L) and National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Phu Trong: front runners in the stalled contest for Vietnam’s new leadership. Photo: AFP

China moves controversial oil rig closer to Vietnam coast in disputed South China Sea

China and Vietnam have clashed over an oil rig. Photo: Xinhua

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China

Diplomacy

Beijing’s deployment of Haiyangshihou 981 in 2014 caused a diplomatic crisis between two neighbours, so was is it back?
