Demonstrations in Hanoi against China ended when the Vietnamese government finally acted on Sunday to round up protesters. The rare public protests, held on weekends for more than a month in front of the Chinese embassy, employed nationalistic slogans and symbols. Thought to have been officially tolerated, or even encouraged, they started soon after China's navy turned back a Vietnamese oil-drilling research boat in a disputed area of the South China Sea.
This sets a potentially tense context to the Asean Regional Forum, soon to start in Bali. The secretary general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Surin Pitsuwan, hopes the meeting will allow the Asean foreign ministers and other major regional powers, including China and the US, to have a constructive dialogue on the issue and the differing claims.
Discussion at the forum is needed as the issue goes beyond bilateral Sino-Vietnamese ties. Similar controversies have erupted between China and the Philippines, after Chinese patrol boats encountered a Filipino exploratory rig near the disputed Reed Bank west of Palawan. Filipinos abroad took to the streets in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago, where they have large expatriate communities, to protest against what they called 'Chinese bullying'.
Potentially resource-rich areas around the Spratly and Paracel island groups are also claimed by Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.
The US has become involved. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen started an official visit to China this week with a warning that incidents in the disputed waters of the South China Sea could escalate into conflict. America's highest ranking military officer pledged to maintain the US military presence in Asia.
It was the US, after all, who gave voice to those concerns when Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton raised the issue at last year's forum. What has happened since then is widely regarded as damaging Chinese diplomacy in the region after a decade of increasing friendship with its neighbours. Now, the issue is also emerging as a test for Asean.
The group has emerged as the most acceptable host in the region, and has gained a central position from being able to convene dialogue among the rising powers. Its role emerged because Asean is a trusted host, relative to others, and because it has developed norms for peaceful co-existence and increased co-operation among neighbours. But these two characteristics cannot be automatically commanded in dealing with the South China Sea.
