Aftermath of riots will cost

Investors will be losing confidence in Vietnamese stability, experts say.

China expressed its "strong dissatisfaction with Vietnam's failure to adopt timely measures to contain the violence effectively" on Saturday, in a representation Beijing made to the government of Vietnam.

Vietnamese authorities are attempting damage control while analysts worldwide expressed concerns about the economic aftermath of the deadly anti-China riots that killed two Chinese citizens and injured more than 100 earlier this week. Some 400 factories were damaged and 1,100 others, including South Korean, Japanese and Singaporean plants, were forced to shut down as of Friday.

Beijing urges Hanoi to take effective measures to "quell the violence, protect Chinese citizens and companies, punish criminals, search for the missing and shelter Chinese victims", Chinese Minister of Public Security Guo Shengkun told his Vietnam's counterpart Tran Dai Quang in a Saturday telephone call.

The anti-China looting and arson in Vietnam came after Vietnamese ships and personnel repeatedly harassed the normal operations of a Chinese oil company in waters only 17 nautical miles (27 km) from China's Xisha Islands and about 150 nautical miles (241 km) from Vietnam in the South China Sea.

With distorted information published by Vietnam's state-run media, the largest anti-China demonstrations in 10 years have been held throughout Vietnam since May 9, and the bloody attacks on Chinese nationals and companies have spread from southern Vietnam on Tuesday to central and northern Vietnam on Thursday.

Tran said the country's government and police authorities have taken effective measures and dispatched massive police forces to the areas affected.

In a text message to millions of people on Saturday, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said the Ministry of Public Security and provincial governments had been ordered to "conduct concerted and determined measures not to allow illegal protests that cause security and social order disturbances", the Associated Press reported.

According to the latest statistics, the premises of 697 companies in Binh Duong Province of Vietnam came under attack, including 27 that were seriously damaged. More than 800 companies suspended production, leaving some 290,000 workers temporarily jobless.

Li Guoqiang, deputy director of the Center for Chinese Borderland History and Geography at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the top priority is to "tone down the domestic public fervor" in Vietnam, adding that there is "no other option left for the authorities".

One of the items on the bilateral agenda is to address and prevent turmoil in Vietnam, "which is important", and China's sovereignty of the Zhongjian Island - which has been dragged into the center of Vietnam's public anger after a Chinese company's oil rig started drilling nearby - is beyond dispute and "never on the table for negotiation", Li said.

A Chinese working group, led by Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Jianchao, held talks with its Vietnamese counterpart in Hanoi on Friday.

Liu demanded that Vietnam "take resolute and effective measures to immediately prevent violent actions to make sure that similar acts do not recur".

Dang Van Hieu, Vietnamese deputy minister of public security, said the government had arrested more than 1,000 criminal suspects and they would be dealt with according to law.

Meanwhile, the Center for Consular Assistance and Protection of the Chinese Foreign Ministry issued an alert for Chinese travelers on Saturday, saying that "Vietnam's circumstances for trade and tourism is worsening".

The center said Chinese citizens "should not go to Vietnam in the near future", and Chinese nationals and institutions in Vietnam should beef up security precautions and avoid leaving their premises, according to a statement posted on the ministry's website on Saturday.

Dean Cheng, a senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington DC, told AFP that the violence risked making Vietnam appear "a lot less pleasant" as an investment destination.

Cheng warned that Asia as a whole could ultimately be the loser if foreign investors decide the region is too risky.

AP warned that "nationalist and dissident groups ... have called for large protests on Sunday in front of the Chinese embassy in Hanoi and in Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam".

Reuters said the risk is that "anti-foreigner antagonism mixed with unhappy workers will be harder to control and will worry foreign companies", and it warned that "a major downturn in foreign investment would be a big economic blow".