Vietnam's new Paracels gas project a 'sneak attack,' says academic

The PLA avy conducts a surveillance drill near the Paracels in the South China Sea in January

State-owned PetroVietnam's plans to enter into a gas field project with America's ExxonMobil in the South China Sea shows that Vietnam is not serious about mending ties with China, says a Chinese academic.Huang Yucheng, an assistant researcher at the Guangxi Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, penned a scathing commentary on the website of China's official Xinhua news agency on Sunday blasting Vietnam after PetroVietnam reportedly reached a preliminary agreement with ExxonMobil on the US$10-billion "Blue Whale" gas field project.

The gas field is situated near Triton Island in the Paracel Islands, ownership of which is disputed between China and Vietnam, and cuts into China's nine-dash line, Huang said, calling it a typical "sneak attack" ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC leadership) summit in Beijing on Nov. 10-11.The nine-dash line was originally an 11-dash line published on a map by the Kuomintang (Nationalist) government of the Republic of China in 1947 to assert its claims in the South China Sea, and even after its revision to nine dashes has been used by China to show the maximum extent of its claim. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia have all officially protested over the use of the line and have called for the dispute to be resolved under international law.

Project Blue Whale comes at a time when China and Vietnam appeared to be mending fences following high tensions in May this year, when a Chinese drilling platform in disputed waters near the Paracels sparked vessel confrontations and widespread anti-Chinese protests in Vietnam that led to several deaths.In late August, Vietnam sent a special envoy to Beijing to meet with Chinese officials in a bid to clear the air. Late last month, the two sides agreed to "properly use a border negotiation mechanism between the two governments to seek a basic, lasting resolution both sides can accept," according to the Chinese foreign ministry.

However, Vietnam's decision to go ahead with exploring a gas field near the Paracels is an infringement on China's sovereignty and an attempt to further bring the legality and effectiveness of the nine-dash line into question, Huang wrote. This shows that Vietnam is not genuinely willing to put forth any "substantial efforts" to stabilize relations with China, he added.