Vietnam's maritime provocations against China set a dangerous course
Gong Yingchun says China has the legal right to take countermeasures
In recent days, the Vietnamese authorities have dispatched a large number of ships, including some naval vessels, to the waters off Zhongjian Island [known by some as Triton Island], forcibly disturbing the normal drilling operations of a Chinese oil rig and ramming China's escorting civilian ships.
Such provocative actions not only pose a serious threat to the safety of the drilling rig and the lives of those working on it; they also infringe the right of Chinese government vessels to carry out maritime law-enforcement tasks within the seas under China's jurisdiction.
It is true that there is a territorial dispute between China and Vietnam over some islands and reefs of the Nansha Islands [also known as the Spratly Islands], but there is no dispute between the two countries over the Xisha Islands [also known as the Paracel Islands], of which Zhongjian Island is a part.
It is also true that delimitation has yet to be determined for the waters between the Xisha Islands and Vietnam's coastline. However, the drilling operation by the Chinese company is only 17 nautical miles from Zhongjian Island, yet 150 nautical miles from the Vietnamese coastline. The location obviously falls within China's offshore waters, notwithstanding the lack of an official delimitation line. There is no possibility of overlapping claims.
According to Article 56 and Article 60 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, China has exclusive sovereign rights of exploring, exploiting, conserving and managing resources within the waters off the Xisha Islands. It also owns exclusive jurisdiction over the construction and use of all installations and structures operating in these waters, including oil rigs.
It is clear that by taking the line that there has been no maritime delimitation, Hanoi has chosen to view the whole sea between China and Vietnam as a disputed area. Vietnam's activities, a violation of international practices, have also set a dangerous precedent for a country to brazenly interrupt another nation's normal maritime operations in the waters under the latter's jurisdiction.