Stopping unreasonable provocations good for Vietnam

Vietnam must stop provocative acts against Chinese companies and nationals in the country, or its international credibility will be undermined and its development momentum sacrificed.

Anti-Chinese sentiment has surged in Vietnam and quickly turned into violence. Extremists targeted Chinese businesses, including those from Taiwan and Hong Kong, as well as companies from Singapore and the Republic of Korea, killing two Chinese nationals and injuring more than 100 others.

The attacks, which came on the back of a series of provocative activities by Hanoi to disturb the normal drilling of a Chinese oil rig in the South China Sea, cannot be justified under any circumstances.

No violence can achieve its aim of scaring China away from exercising its legitimate rights, and the Vietnamese government bears unshirkable responsibility for the failure to contain such violence in a timely manner.

The operations undertaken by China Oilfield Services Limited (COSL) are only 17 nautical miles from Zhongjian Island, completely within China's territorial waters, while they are as far as 130-150 nautical miles (241-278 km) from Vietnam's coastline.

Therefore, COSL's operations are completely within the mandate of China's sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction.

Vietnam's provocations will undermine its international accountability, sharply reduce foreign direct investment and the number of inbound tourists, thus impacting its economic development.

According to latest statistics, the premises of 697 companies in Binh Duong Province of Vietnam came under attack, with 27 of them seriously damaged.

Over 800 companies suspended production, leaving some 290,000 workers temporarily jobless.

Besides, Vietnam's tourism has already been affected in recent days, as Chinese tourists have rushed to cancel their group trips to Vietnam. In Hong Kong, the tourism industry suspended all group trips to Vietnam on Friday.

China is now Vietnam's largest trading partner, with a bilateral trade volume of 50 billion US dollars in 2012. As China is now undertaking an economic structural readjustment, a great deal of industries have transferred to Vietnam, boosting the country's economy.

Like China, Vietnam is also in a process of reform and rapid development. It should cherish the hard-won peace and development situation, rather than returning to the old way of confronting China.

A series of new ideas and moves brought about by the new Chinese leadership in foreign policy, especially those toward its neighbors, have shown that a developing and stronger China will not only provide huge market demand and economic growth, but also give new momentum for regional integration, thereby benefiting China's neighbors in Southeast Asia.