M

ay 28, p7

In the piece 'Vietnam's dangerous acts', Liu Hongyang, chargé d'affaires at the Chinese Embassy in Indonesia, mentioned that the Xisha (or Paracel) Islands 'are an inherent territory of China'.

'The international community has recognized this since World War II, while former Vietnamese premier Pham Van Dong publicly recognized these and other islands as Chinese territory on Sept. 14, 1958,' Liu said.

I feel compelled to offer the following points to set the record straight. (By Nguyen Xuan Thuy, Jakarta)

Your comments:

I have one identical reply to all outrageous Vietnam supporters.

I've read too many versions of these Spratly, Paracel, Macclesfield and Scarborough Islands from so many sources.

And in my opinion, any dispute might easily be triggered from the fact that there are no native ethnic dwellers, there are no costs to maintain the islands and there are no relics, facilities, monuments or landmarks to indicate the owner.

Please admit that China built the airport at the easternmost island (Woody/Yongxing/Phu-Lam?), with no allegation from surrounding countries.

And admit that Vietnam had shown no objection during implementation of the Geneva Agreement, long before annexing Saigon since it needed China's support to fight the US.

Vietnam also lost the 1974 Paracel war to China.

I do not agree with any military action to acquire Paracel. So please instigate the negotiations as soon as possible.

Vietnam and China were very close friends when they fought their common enemy, an ugly monster named the United States.

So again, swallow your pride, grow up, be rational and start negotiating. The Vietnamese should never bear in mind that they are weak, small and poor to attract world empathy.

You have shown the world that Vietnam is a strong nation, and be it that way always, I wish.  

And about Natuna, Indonesia has built many facilities on the islands, and more than 70,000 Indonesians live on the islands, clearly showing that Natuna is a different story.

Fussion

All China's sea claims are wrapped up in that nine-dash line, which extends more than 1,000 nautical miles from the coasts of Guangdong and Hainan to close to Borneo, the island shared by Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei, and includes almost all the sea between Vietnam and the Philippines.

This claim encompasses more than 90 percent of the sea, even though China (including Taiwan) has only about 20 percent of the coastline.

All this on the basis of claims to history that conveniently ignore the very existence of other peoples and their histories of seafaring and trading going back 2,000 years, and pre-dating China's ventures in the South Sea and beyond.

Indonesians got to Africa and colonized Madagascar more than 500 years before Zheng He. In turn, the peoples of Southeast Asia absorbed more from India and the Islamic world than China.

In the case of the current issue with Vietnam, brought about by China's movement of a drillship into waters due east of Danang, China has a small case, in that it does now own the Paracel Islands, which are closer to the drill location than to Vietnam.

But the islands themselves have long been in dispute between the two, a matter settled for now by China's unprovoked invasion of them in 1974.

Dung