South China Sea: why Beijing takes a low-key approach to Vietnam but not the Philippines
Manila’s alliance with the US may be one reason China is taking a much tougher stance, but Hanoi’s island-building could still be a problem
China’s response to Vietnam’s rapid expansion of its land reclamation in the Spratly Islands has been muted so far – a stark contrast to Beijing’s increasingly assertive response to the Philippines.
Analysts said the different approaches were down to a number of factors, including the political relationship between China and Vietnam, the latter’s low-key approach and the alliance between the Philippines and the United States.
But they did not rule out a tougher approach from Beijing in the future and said the issue could still cause problems.
Satellite images published by the Washington-based Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies have shown the unprecedented pace and scale of the land reclamation efforts around the islands and reefs Vietnam controls since 2021.
In May the Beijing-based Grandview Institution published an assessment of the US satellite images, saying that, as of November last year, Vietnam had added “3 sq km (1.2 sq miles) of new land, far exceeding the total construction scale over the previous 40 years”.
