(tankie/campist mindfuck) Nguyen Thanh Bien winced as he rubbed his side, turning toward a portrait of Ho Chi Minh in a living room filled with conch shells. He said he was still dealing with internal injuries two weeks after the Chinese authorities boarded his fishing boat and bashed him with iron pipes in a patch of the South China Sea claimed by both China and Vietnam.
“I got hit first in the head from behind — I was running to the front of the boat,” he said, sitting beside his father, who taught him to fish near their home on Vietnam’s south-central coast. “With the second blow, I lost consciousness.” When he awoke, his catch, worth nearly $8,000, was gone. His ribs were broken. And three other crew members were injured. China’s aggressive policing of disputed territory has produced the latest clash in a long, complex relationship. China ruled Vietnam for a millennium, leaving an indelible cultural mark, but Vietnam’s national identity and fierce independence spring from its resistance to Chinese empire-building, as its school students learn from a young age. And the South China Sea is where Vietnam’s defiance is being tested — on its own and alongside other countries, including the Philippines and Indonesia, which are also struggling to hold on to parts of the sea that China seeks to control. .... The Chinese Foreign Ministry denied that its law enforcement officers had hurt anyone while stopping a boat that it said was fishing illegally near the Paracel Islands on Sept. 30. But the violence, described in interviews, insurance claims and letters to the Vietnamese government, fit a pattern: China has already used water cannons, boat-ramming, ship-sinking and lasers in its effort to assert dominance over the South China Sea. Last week, it held a bombing exercise in the Gulf of Tonkin, issuing an “entering prohibited” warning <https://www.msa.gov.cn/page/article.do?articleId=719921AF-53C6-414C-8052-C0697D4BCE6F&channelId=86DE2FFF-FF2C-47F9-8359-FD1F20D6508F> for waters 75 miles from Vietnam’s coast. ... In June, a fishing boat and its crew from Mr. Bien’s village, Chau Thuan Bien, about 80 miles south of Danang, disappeared after reporting by radio an encounter with the Chinese authorities. Vietnamese officials kept quiet. Relatives say they have still not heard anything from the men since one called to say they were being held on China’s Hainan Island. The Foreign Ministry in Hanoi did not respond to questions about the case, which has not previously been reported. The assault on Mr. Bien, however, appears to have crossed a line, prompting a response on Oct. 2 that was far stronger than usual. “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,” said the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Pham Thu Hang. The attack has also shaken Mr. Bien’s coastal hamlet of 300 families, many of whom have been fishing for generations. Vietnam’s war with the United States exacted a heavy toll across the area, but in communities where nets sparkle at dusk and round basket boats brighten the beaches, China and the sea are timeless, elemental threats. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/28/world/asia/vietnam-south-china-sea.html?smid=em-share -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#33457): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/33457 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/109497190/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
