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| The South China Sea |
International Military - The feud between China and Vietnam has been known for a long time. Starting from the China Vietnam war that occurred in 1979 to the problems in the South China Sea. And there is information if Vietnam is really threatened by China regarding oil and gas exploitation in the SCS area which is claimed by China.
"China reportedly threatened to attack Vietnamese outposts in the Spratly Islands if it did not stop drilling in areas of Vietnam's continental shelf that overlap with China's claims," explained crisisgroup.org. From this explanation, Vietnam was threatened with attack by China, especially at military posts in the Spratlys.
It was over these threats that the two countries became embroiled in a stalemate in 2014, which led to deadly anti-China riots in Vietnamese cities. As a result, Vietnam is pursuing a long-term solution to the dispute through peaceful means in accordance with international law. In particular the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea with China and but Beijing rejected it.
On the one hand, Vietnam's main challenge is to protect national sovereignty in the South China Sea. And some of Vietnam's economic and strategic interests lie in the South China Sea which is claimed by China. In the face of China's frequent intrusions into Vietnamese waters and its harassment of ships seeking oil and gas.
Not to mention that Vietnam's EEZ area was also infiltrated by Chinese maritime militias who caught fish in the area. To the extent that (CSIS) in the US revealed that there were about 300 Chinese maritime militia ships pacing back and forth in the waters of Southeast Asia. "China's maritime militia is getting bigger and bigger to enforce its claims in the targeted area," CSIS said, quoted from Al Jazeera.
Apparently the existence of this Chinese maritime militia has existed since 1950. At that time China seized the Paracel archipelago from Vietnam in the 1970s. They captured the Paracels with armed maritime militia forces. It is now known that China's maritime militia is already in the Philippines' Scarborough Shoal to de facto occupy it.
The Chinese government itself subsidizes all the needs of its maritime militia from shipbuilding to logistics. After that they were given a side task besides fishing, namely upholding the Nine Dash Line claim in Southeast Asian waters. The trick is to break through the sea territory of another country with the Chinese coast guard escort. This method is very effective where ASEAN countries are less prepared to deal with it and eventually deploy military force.
Previously, there was an explanation that currently Indonesia and China are in a fairly tense condition when it comes to the North Natuna Sea. Because Indonesia, which carried out oil and gas drilling in the Tuna Block, immediately got a protest from China. The Chinese protest asked Indonesia to stop the oil and gas drilling process being carried out in the Tuna Block.
"A letter from a Chinese diplomat to Indonesia's foreign ministry clearly told Indonesia to stop drilling on the offshore rig temporarily because it was happening on Chinese territory," according to Muhammad Farhan, an Indonesian lawmaker on parliament's national security committee.
"Our answer is very firm, that we will not stop drilling because it is our sovereign right," Farhan told Reuters. A Spokesperson for the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said "Every diplomatic communication between countries is private and its content cannot be shared". He declined to comment further.
"The Chinese embassy in the Indonesian capital Jakarta did not respond to requests for comment. Three others, who claimed to have been briefed on the matter, confirmed the existence of the letter.
Two of them said that China repeatedly demanded that Indonesia stop drilling," he explained. Apart from that, if the problems that befell several countries in the ASEAN region regarding the South China Sea because of China's claims. And China's claim is the Nine Dash Line which is the problem. are you serious.
"The Nine Dash Line has no international legal basis, citing a 2016 decision by a The Hague tribunal. It also rejects Beijing's historical claims at sea," wrote eurasiantimes.com. From this explanation, the Nine Dash Line rejects Beijing's historical claims in the North Natuna Sea.