Update | Vietnam jails two for anti-China riots as anti-Beijing march is held in Hong Kong
Two Vietnamese workers have been sentenced for their role in anti-China riots as about 200 protesters staged an anti-Beijing protest in Hong Kong over the South China Sea sovereignty dispute
Two Vietnamese workers were sentenced on Sunday for a total of 48 months in jail for "stealing" and "causing trouble" during anti-China riots in the southern province of Binh Duong, according to provincial authorities, the Lao Dong newspaper reports.
The men, the first among 276 defendants detained two weeks earlier, were said to take advantage of the demonstrations against China’s deployment of an oil rig in the disputed South China Sea to steal office supplies, provoke the crowd, and destroy others’ properties, the report said.
Meanwhile on Sunday, about 200 protesters staged an anti-China protest in Hong Kong over the sovereignty dispute – the first of its kind so close to the mainland.
The protesters, many of them Vietnamese now resident in Hong Kong, and other supporters, marched peacefully from the government's headquarters in Admiralty to a branch office of China's foreign ministry brandishing red-starred Vietnamese flags, singing patriotic songs and chanting Vietnamese slogans.
The protesters, watched by around two dozen policemen, were led by a young Vietnamese man holding a portrait of their country's late, wispy-bearded revolutionary leader and former president, Ho Chi Minh.
"China, the whole world knows, is now invading into our territorial waters … We love our country," said one of the protest organisers, Mo Pak-fung.
"We are coming out today because we hope China will leave Vietnam … We don't want a war to occur," added Mo, who comes from Vietnam but has lived in Hong Kong for the past 25 years.
Tensions flared between Vietnam and China after Beijing deployed an oil exploration rig in disputed waters near the Paracel Islands, which China calls the Xisha Islands and Vietnam calls the Hoang Sa Islands.
Protesters in Hong Kong waved several banners reading, "We love Peace withdraw 981 oil rig out of Vietnam sea", and "We need help from international communities". They did not rule out further action in Hong Kong.
The placement of the oil rig to a location 240km off Vietnam's coast in an area both counties claim unleashed a deadly wave of violence across Vietnam as thousands of protesters rampaged in industrial zones.
Vietnam says the islands fall within its continental shelf and a 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone.
