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NY Times, June 12, 2018
Vietnamese Protest an Opening for Chinese Territorial Interests
By Richard C. Paddock
BANGKOK — Anti-China protests erupted throughout Vietnam and more than
100 people were arrested late Sunday after demonstrators stormed a
provincial government building east of Ho Chi Minh City, the local news
media reported.
Many Vietnamese harbor resentment against China, Vietnam’s northern
neighbor, and were said to be angry about a measure that would allow the
leasing of land to foreigners for 99 years in three special economic zones.
The government, which was scheduled to adopt the measure this week, said
it would delay action until later this year, according to media reports.
Hundreds of protesters carrying signs and banners took to the streets in
Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and several other cities over the weekend.
On Sunday evening, hundreds of demonstrators in Binh Thuan Province
defied tear gas and fire hoses to storm the office of the People’s
Committee. The authorities said that dozens of police officers were
injured in clashes and that the protesters burned cars and vandalized
the building.
The Vietnamese public was already angry over China’s claim to much of
the South China Sea, including coastal waters that Vietnam claims. Now,
many fear that the proposed economic zones would be dominated by Chinese
investors, including possibly state-owned companies.
Past protests against China have become a focal point for a range of
grievances against the Vietnamese government, including the seizure of
farmland to build malls and factories.
Sunday’s protests were reminiscent of riots that broke out in 2014 after
China placed an oil rig in waters off Vietnam. The government initially
allowed peaceful protests, but they quickly grew out of control, and
more than 200 factories owned by Chinese and other foreign companies
were looted and set ablaze around Vietnam.
The worst rioting occurred at a steel factory being built in Ha Tinh
Province by a subsidiary of Taiwan’s giant Formosa Plastics Group, where
the company employed thousands of laborers from mainland China.
Protesters stopped buses, pulled off Chinese passengers and beat them.
Four people were killed.
Two years later, the same factory caused one of Vietnam’s largest
environmental disasters when it flushed cyanide and other chemicals
through its waste pipeline, killing marine life along a 120-mile stretch
of coastline.
Many people were sickened from eating poisoned fish and the coastal
fishing economy collapsed, prompting numerous demonstrations along
Vietnam’s central coast.
In November, a 22-year-old blogger, Nguyen Van Hoa, was sentenced to
seven years in prison for producing videos and writing about the protests.
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