Update | Looming street protests over China a test for Vietnam
Communist Party weighs how far to let protests against Beijing's oil rig in disputed waters go, for fear they will turn into revolt against its rule
Vietnamese anger towards China is running at its highest level in years after Beijing deployed an oil rig in disputed waters. That's putting Vietnam's leaders in a difficult position as they calculate how far to allow public protests that could turn into demonstrations against their own authoritarian rule.
At one level, the ruling Communist Party would like to harness the anger on the street to amplify its own indignation against China and garner international sympathy as naval ships from both countries engage in a tense stand-off near the rig off the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea.
But Vietnam's government instinctively distrusts public gatherings of any sort, much less ones that risk posing a threat to public order.
And they also know that members of the country's dissident movement are firmly embedded inside the anti-China one, and have used the issue to mobilise support in the past.
Yesterday, around 100 people protested outside the Chinese consulate in the country's commercial capital, Ho Chi Minh City, watched by a large contingent of security officers.