US Defence Secretary Mark Esper confirmed that the boat would be granted to Vietnam in a bid to help the Asian country combat China’s recurring entry into the country’s economic exclusion zone, resulting in standoffs and political fallout. Mr Esper also called out Beijing for “bullying” smaller nations in the region, adding that “China’s unilateral efforts to assert illegitimate maritime claims threaten other nations’ access to vital natural resources, undermine the stability of regional energy markets, and increase the risk of conflict.”
While the rhetoric remains typically fraught with hostile exchanges, the increased help from the US paints a worrying picture for China President Xi Jinping as he aims to enforce his country’s Nine-Dash Line claim of the South China Sea.
This is because Vietnam are starting to cooperate more with third parties, when their foreign policy prior to the boat acquisition has been for the most part focused on their ‘Three Noes’ policy: no alliances, no bases, and no working with a second country against a third.
Previously, this had resulted in the US being limited in its capacity to help Hanoi deal with Chinese vessels encroaching on its economic exclusion zone.
But now, President Donald Trump appears to have been given more freedom by Vietnam to step in on their behalf, meaning China will now face increasing opposition.
Vietnam has already been in many expert’s view, the most dogged smaller nation when standing up to China’s aggression.
As Derek Grossman highlighted in his article for The Diplomat, Vietnam has undertaken a “cooperation and struggle” method to dealing with Beijing.
This involved a mixture of defiant rhetoric calling out China as the aggressor in the dispute, but also calls for stability as General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong pledged to “never concede the issues of sovereignty, independence, unification and territorial integrity.”
This was seen during the three month long standoff between China and Vietnam after a Chinese oil vessel – The Haiyang Dizhi 8 – entered Hanoi’s economic zone as part of a controversial oil surveying mission.
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It was eventually seen speeding away from Vietnam’s EEZ towards China last month under the escort of at least two Chinese ships, according to data from Marine Traffic, a website that tracks vessels.
The standoff will have reflected badly according to some in Hanoi, as Beijing’s vessel only departed once Vietnam’s Hakuryu-5 had left the region first, and at one point China’s Haiyang Dizhi 8 had even left the area only to return after refuelling.
China and Vietnam have history in the region.
On February 17, 1979, hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops crossed Vietnam’s northern border to invade the country, waging a bloody strike along the 370-mile border that the two nations share.
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In 1988, 64 Vietnamese soldiers were killed in a conflict over the Johnson South Reef in the South China Sea.
In 2014, there was a standoff between Chinese and Vietnamese military, as a Chinese oil rig entered disputed waters where Vietnam had also contested for ownership.
China may have aggravated Vietnam with little consequence, but the US has taken notice and look to be taking steps that would seriously compromise Xi Jinping’s ambitions.