Vietnamese mobs burn foreign firms in riots against China

Reuters, HANOI and MANILA

Smoke and flames billow from a factory in Binh Duong Province yesterday as anti-China protesters set more than a dozen businesses on fire in Vietnam in an escalating backlash against Beijing’s deployment of an oil rig in a contested area of the South China Sea.

Photo: AFP

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Thousands of Vietnamese set fire to foreign factories and rampaged in industrial zones in the south of the country in an angry reaction to Chinese oil drilling in a part of the South China Sea claimed by Taiwan, Vietnam and China, officials said yesterday.

The brunt of Tuesday’s anti-China violence appears to have been borne by Taiwanese companies in the provinces of Binh Duong and Dong Nai that rioters mistook as being Chinese-owned.

The row over the South China Sea was sparked by Beijing’s movement of an oil rig near the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島) last week. The Paracels are claimed by Taipei, Hanoi and Beijing.

The anti-China violence in Vietnam has brought relations between Hanoi and Beijing to one of their lowest points since the Communist neighbors fought a brief border war in 1979.

“I fear a dark chapter in Sino-Vietnamese relations is now being written and because China wants to keep that oil rig in place into August, these protests could just be the first pages,” said Ian Storey, a expert on the South China Sea at Singapore’s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

Binh Duong People’s Committee vice chairman Tran Van Namb said the workers’ protests were initially peaceful, but disorder broke out when their numbers swelled to about 20,000. Gates were smashed and rioters set 15 factories on fire, he said.

“This caused billions of dong [hundreds of thousands of dollars] in damages and thousands of workers will have lost their jobs,” Nam said by telephone. “We urge everyone to stay calm, exercise restraint and have faith in the leadership of the [Vietnamese Communist] Party and State.”

A Binh Duong police official said by telephone that about 200 people had been arrested, adding: “We are working on other areas in the province... We haven’t seen any injuries.”

A Singaporean Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman said that the premises of a number of foreign companies in two Vietnam-Singapore joint venture industrial parks in Binh Duong had been broken into and set ablaze.

Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) told reporters that China was seriously concerned about the violence and had summoned Vietnam’s ambassador to protest.

Beijing has “demanded the Vietnamese side make efforts to adopt effective measures to resolutely support eliminating illegal criminal acts and protect the safety of Chinese citizens and institutions,” Hua told reporters.

MOFA condemns protests against China in Vietnam

It's so sad that Taiwanese sweatshops are being trashed in Vietnam because of Chinese seizure of disputed oil reserves in Vietnamese waters. Serves these locust right to lose their capital though it is a mistaken revenge on Taiwanese in Vietnam, not Chinese. The bottom line: Taiwan is not China though the sweatshops are run by Taiwanese business people who are for unification. Say no to sweatshops from any boss, anywhere!

MOFA condemns protests against China in Vietnam

RIOT ACT:The foreign ministry urged Hanoi to protect Taiwanese there after protests over China’s territorial spat with Vietnam devolved into a rampage on foreign factories

By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin talks to reporters in Taipei yesterday, calling on the Vietnamese government to prevent further attacks on Taiwanese businesspeople and companies.

Photo: CNA

The government yesterday condemned the violent anti-China protests in Vietnam over Hanoi’s ongoing territorial dispute with Beijing, demanding that the Vietnamese government get the situation under control after the factories and offices of Taiwanese businesses in the country’s southeast were damaged during what it called “acts of rioting” by the protesters.

Speaking at a hastily convened press conference yesterday morning, Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) was still trying to gather information on the factories damaged in the unrest in Binh Duong and Dong Nai provinces that ensued after an anti-Chinese protest devolved into a violent attack against foreign businesses on Tuesday afternoon.

The mass demonstration was launched over the weekend to denounce Beijing’s installation of an oil rig close to the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島) in the South China Sea, which are claimed by Taiwan, China and Vietnam. The three also claim sovereignty over all or part of the sea, as do Brunei, the Philippines and Malaysia.

The protest intensified on Tuesday and participants started damaging any factory with Chinese-language signs, including those owned by Taiwanese companies.

“We condemn the violent acts, but we believe the situation is calming down since the Vietnamese government has deployed military and police forces to the area,” Lin said.

No deaths were reported, despite rumors said that two Chinese workers at a Taiwan-owned factory were killed, but a Taiwanese businessman was confirmed injured and received three stitches, while reports of another injury case have yet to be verified, according to Lin.

The minister said he has summoned Vietnam Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei Director Bui Trong Van and demanded that Hanoi take every measure necessary to protect Taiwanese businesspeople and their families in Vietnam.

The ministry elevated the travel alert level for the two provinces where the violence occurred to “orange,” the second-highest threat level on the ministry’s four-color system, and revised the alert for Ho Chi Minh City upward to “yellow.”

Lin said the ministry has contacted China Airlines Ltd (中華航空) and EVA Airaways Corp (長榮航空) to arrange additional flights for Taiwanese who want to leave Vietnam, but that it did not think an evacuation was necessary.

Asked if the situation warranted a statement from the government reasserting Taiwan’s sovereignty and status as a country separate from China, the minister said people know that both sides “are governed separately” and that issuing such a statement would “require further study.”

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Vanessa Shih (史亞萍) said that the relationship between Taiwan and China was not relevant to the cause of the unrest, adding that the Vietnamese protesters “could not tell Taiwanese businesspeople from Chinese businesspeople.”

Meanwhile, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) issued a four-point statement urging the government to prepare evacuation plans for Taiwanese in Vietnam and demand that the Vietnamese government protect the property and safety of Taiwanese there.

DPP Policy Research Committee executive director Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) told a press conference that the political implications behind the protests deserve more attention, since President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration has yet to comment on Beijing’s dispatch of the oil rig, despite the US having done so.

PRC’s Xi declares ‘four noes’ on Taiwan

UNHAPPY:Analysts interpreted the Xi Jinping-James Soong meeting as a rebuke to the Ma administration for its inability to implement the service trade agreement

By Peng Hsien-chun, Chen Hui-ping and Stacy Hsu  /  Staff reporters, with staff writer and agencies

People First Party Chairman James Soong, left, shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing yesterday.

Photo: CNA

Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday made an indirect response to the concerns voiced by the Sunflower movement protesters against the controversial cross-strait service trade agreement, pledging to learn more about the needs of Taiwanese, particularly those of ordinary Taiwanese.

Xi made the remarks at a meeting with People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing yesterday.

Soong began a five-day visit to Beijing on Tuesday, which set up a platform for Xi to address the growing apprehension among Taiwanese of the creeping economic influence of Beijing.

The student-led movement was launched in protest against the government’s handling of the trade pact, which was inked on June 21 last year and is pending legislative ratification, and to call for effective oversight of cross-strait agreements.

“Based on the concept that both sides of the Taiwan Strait are of one family, there is no difficulty that cannot be overcome as long as each side feels for the other and treats the other with sincerity,” Xinhua news agency quoted Xi as saying. “We’d like to know more about the practical needs of Taiwanese, especially those of the grassroots, and take proactive and effective steps to take care of vulnerable groups and to ensure more Taiwanese can benefit from cross-strait economic interaction and cooperation.”

Despite his seemingly soft stance on Taiwan’s growing youth activism, Xi reiterated Beijing’s “unwavering and steely determination” to prevent pro-independence supporters from attempting to “split” Taiwanese society.

The pledge was part of what Xi called China’s “four noes” related to Taiwan, which included three other pledges — it will not change its policy on promoting peaceful development of cross-strait relations, it will not give up its pragmatic approach to seek mutual beneficial results, and nothing will shake its passion to push for the unity of people on both sides.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) dismissed Xi’s remarks, saying that the recent spate of protests had demonstrated the public’s strong desire to determine the future of their own nation.

“The DPP and Taiwanese stand firmly behind the nation’s sovereignty, and the values of freedom and democracy. We insist on living a free and open life,” Su said.

Meanwhile, some political analysts interpreted the Xi-Soong meeting, which they said was held at Xi’s request, as Beijing’s way of demonstrating its discontent with the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and its failure to implement the trade pact.

Beijing has repeatedly dismissed Ma’s calls for a Ma-Xi meeting.

“Playing two-handed strategies has always been one of China’s fortes. By setting up a meeting with a ‘political goner,’ Beijing was not only able to make a seemingly warm shout out to Taiwanese, but also get back at the Ma administration,” an analyst said on condition of anonymity.

Soong urged the Chinese leader to show “four understandings” when engaging with Taiwan.

“I hope you can understand the ‘Taiwanese consciousness’ when seeking to deepen mutual trust between both sides of the Taiwan Strait. I hope you can understand and know more about the rise of a more autonomous civic consciousness in Taiwan, as our political and social systems are after all much different from yours,” Soong said.

Soong called on Xi to improve his understanding of Taiwan’s democratic system and its pluralistic society, while showing understanding of the problems faced by the owners of Taiwan’s small and medium-sized enterprises, who grew up in a nation whose economy was diversified and independent, and who often had to work away from home.

Additional reporting by Shih Hsiu-chuan