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My Take | Why Chinese think tanks’ South China Sea reports targeting Vietnam, Indonesia will only escalate tensions
- Singling out Vietnam and Indonesia is simply an attempt to divert attention from maritime confrontations in the disputed waterway
- The best way to ease tension would be to exercise caution at sea and for external countries to diplomatically engage China and the Philippines
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Two recent reports from Chinese think tanks targeting Vietnam and Indonesia over the South China Sea reflect the potential for disputes in the waterway to escalate following Beijing’s maritime clashes with the Philippines.
Beijing-based Grandview Institution warned that Vietnam’s reclamation in the South China Sea could “complicate and expand” disputes in the region, in its report on May 14.
The report pointed out that Vietnam had reclaimed more land in the region over the past three years than in the previous four decades. Hanoi had carried out only “modest” reclamation efforts on 29 islands and reefs it controlled in the Spratly Islands, a disputed archipelago in the South China Sea, up to 2019, according to the institution.
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But in recent years, Vietnam has embarked on major dredging and landfill works and expanded the reclaimed area several times, from the original 0.7 sq km (0.27 sq miles) to 3 sq km, the report’s author Liu Xiaobo said.
The second report issued by the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations last Thursday said potential clashes in the South China Sea could test Indonesia’s ties with China.
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