Will Vietnam keep ‘nuanced’ China policy amid report of radar system on disputed island?

China’s new radar system on Triton Island could enable it to survey an area from Hainan to the Subi Reef, a Chatham House report says

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Fishing boats anchored at a port on Vietnam’s offshore Ly Son island, near the disputed Paracel archipelago in the South China Sea. Photo: AFP

Published: 8:33pm, 23 Oct 2024

China may have installed a new radar system on Triton Island in the disputed Paracel archipelago in a move that analysts say could curb Vietnam’s operations in the area even as Hanoi aims to maintain its “nuanced” approach towards Beijing when dealing with maritime tensions.

A report by UK-based think tank Chatham House said China’s radar system on Triton – as shown by satellite images – could enable Beijing to survey an area stretching from Hainan Island to the Subi Reef in the Spratlys.

The development was worrying as Triton was only 130 nautical miles (240km) from the coast of mainland Vietnam, said Huynh Tam Sang, an international relations lecturer at Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City.

“The new radar system gives China leverage to monitor Vietnam’s central coastal region, home to its strategic military bases,” he said. It would also allow China to bolster its electronic warfare and intelligence capabilities, he added.

In addition, China could also improve its monitoring of any oil and gas exploration operations by Vietnam near the Paracel Islands with the system, Huynh said.

Phan Xuan Dung, a research officer at ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute and a PhD candidate at the Australian National University, told This Week in Asia that China could gain “de facto control” of the disputed area covered by its system through its ability to detect Vietnam’s activities.