Opinion | Vietnam’s threat of legal warfare could signal it is ready to take an even bolder stance on China
- Hanoi has floated the idea of going further than diplomatic protests over Beijing’s conduct in the South China Sea
- At a time when the Philippines has moved closer to Beijing under Rodrigo Duterte, Vietnam has gone the other way
“China is a sleeping giant. Let her sleep, for when she wakes she will move the world,” warned the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte centuries ago. Today, not only has China awakened, but it has shaken up the world, especially its southern neighbours.
No country has grappled more excruciatingly with this geopolitical shock than Vietnam. For millennia, the Southeast Asian country has essentially defined its identity in opposition to threats, real or perceived, from its giant neighbour to the north.
During a high-profile conference in Hanoi this month, Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung raised the prospect of action beyond routine diplomatic protests. He highlighted extra-diplomatic options such as third-party “fact-finding, mediation, conciliation, negotiation, arbitration and litigation measures”.
“The UN Charter and UNCLOS [the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea] have sufficient mechanisms for us to apply those [legal] measures,” the Vietnamese diplomat said, raising the prospect of replicating a similar move by the Philippines earlier this decade.