Engineer
Major
I think they both fall under exploitation of resources.
China's SCS Strategy Thread
- Thread starter lilzz
- Start date
I think they both fall under exploitation of resources.
Equation
Lieutenant General
Yeah but 'exploring' is looking for the resources to exploit, meanwhile 'drilling' is extracting the resources that's already been found and ready to be exploited.
duncanidaho
Junior Member
Not consequently, test drilling is also looking for the resources to exploit, and in this special case the chinese are rather drilling for test than drilling for expoitation.
Equation
Lieutenant General
But they are a lot more ready to drill to extract than the other party, who still even hasn't found a favorable spot to even start test drilling.
Geographer
Junior Member
Vietnam doesn't have many options here. They can keep up the head-butting activities but China has more and bigger ships, and seems have to anticipated this move. Even if the Vietnamese coast guard got close to the oil rig, how would they stop it from drilling? Would they try to board the rig?
The oil rig really isn't provocative. Provocative would be parking it way down south in the Spratly Islands, or within sight of the Vietnamese coastline. Since China has soldiers on all the Paracel Islands, and the oil rig is 30 km for those islands, this is not a big change from the status quo.
The Vietnamese government has painted itself into a corner with its strong public statements. It has vowed to stop the oil rig but lacks the means to do so. If China doesn't budge, the Vietnamese government/coast guard is going to lose some major face among its citizens and neighbors.
The oil rig really isn't provocative. Provocative would be parking it way down south in the Spratly Islands, or within sight of the Vietnamese coastline. Since China has soldiers on all the Paracel Islands, and the oil rig is 30 km for those islands, this is not a big change from the status quo.
The Vietnamese government has painted itself into a corner with its strong public statements. It has vowed to stop the oil rig but lacks the means to do so. If China doesn't budge, the Vietnamese government/coast guard is going to lose some major face among its citizens and neighbors.
i saw some news reports yesterday and the viets are getting quite creative. they had divers underwater to tangle Chinese ship propellers with nets. but you are correct, they are hopelessly outmatched here. no matter what they are thinking of doing, the Chinese can do it X ten easily without breaking a sweat. if this boat ramming thing keeps on going then the Chinese can collect a whole bunch of old ships, reinforce there hulls in the numerous 2nd, 3rd tier shipyards they have with steel and simply have a ''ramming'' fleet to play around with the viets. this is actually getting fun to watch.
btw about a week or ago a tw fishing boat was chased by japan coast guard and was shot by paint pellets all across the ship. so that would be a great idea for the Chinese coast guard, shoot the viets with paint pellets and start a naval paint ball fight. i'd love to see how the western press spin that into a new round of "unprecedented hostile provocations'' from china.
Last edited:
joshuatree
Captain
Of all the disputes, this one Vietnam doesn't have a leg to stand on. North Vietnam which is the current day Vietnam acknowledged Chinese claims to the Paracels in 1958 with a diplomatic note by Prime Minister Pham Van Dong and was publicized on Nhan Dan newspaper. 17 miles from Triton Island is not territorial water but it is contiguous water so it's not even an EEZ debate. The US adopted a contiguous zone out to 24 nm itself in 1999.
A lot of these other claimants attack and paint China as the aggressor but when you look at their own claims, not one of them ever considers the fact that they themselves need to compromise on their 200 nm max claim limit for EEZs if there is ever to be a peaceful settlement.
Geographer
Junior Member
I haven't heard this. Do you have a source? That sounds like a suicide mission. Once the rig is in position, what can the Vietnamese coast guard do to stop it from drilling?
Regarding the 1958 diplomatic note from Pham Van Dong, I don't think it says Vietnam accepts Chinese ownership of the Paracel or Spratly Islands. The note does not mention those islands at all. Pham Van Dong said Vietnam accepts China's the width of China's territorial waters. According to , the translation of the 1958 note is as follows:
(My emphasis)
Meanwhile, the water cannon war has begun. This Tuoi Tre reads like a David vs. Goliath tale.
I'm skeptical of this account. I look forward to reading the Chinese side of the story.
Equation
Lieutenant General
btw about a week or ago a tw fishing boat was chased by japan coast guard and was shot by paint pellets all across the ship. so that would be a great idea for the Chinese coast guard, shoot the viets with paint pellets and start a naval paint ball fight. i'd love to see how the western press spin that into a new round of "unprecedented hostile provocations'' from china.
Than the two side could easily increase the velocity of the air flow so that their paint balls can become as deadly as bullets.
Geographer
Junior Member
What is some non-lethal weaponry for use on the high seas?
Ramming
Water cannons
Paintball guns?
Lobbing bottles of stinky liquid (the Sea Shepherd environmentalists have done this to Japanese whaling ships)?
Tear gas?
When two ships collide at sea, videos show them locked together for a minute. That's enough time to use paintball guns or tear gas. What if a skilled crew member could shoot a tear gas grenade down an open doorway? That would be very persuasive. A risk is that it could start a fire, like at the Waco Siege in 1993.
Edit: I found a Chinese accusing Vietnamese divers of trying to obstruct the ships.
In Vietnam, this incident is HUGE NEWS! It's the number one issue in the country. From the look of Chinese news websites, it's barely an issue. Global Times doesn't even have it on its front page as of 12 May 2014. How can Chinese newspapers omit an ongoing incident with multiple ship rammings? No sensible news editor would skip a story this big. I think the Chinese government is censoring coverage of this incident. For what purpose? Maybe to save face if China eventually withdraws its rig? That what this thinks.
Ramming
Water cannons
Paintball guns?
Lobbing bottles of stinky liquid (the Sea Shepherd environmentalists have done this to Japanese whaling ships)?
Tear gas?
When two ships collide at sea, videos show them locked together for a minute. That's enough time to use paintball guns or tear gas. What if a skilled crew member could shoot a tear gas grenade down an open doorway? That would be very persuasive. A risk is that it could start a fire, like at the Waco Siege in 1993.
Edit: I found a Chinese accusing Vietnamese divers of trying to obstruct the ships.
In Vietnam, this incident is HUGE NEWS! It's the number one issue in the country. From the look of Chinese news websites, it's barely an issue. Global Times doesn't even have it on its front page as of 12 May 2014. How can Chinese newspapers omit an ongoing incident with multiple ship rammings? No sensible news editor would skip a story this big. I think the Chinese government is censoring coverage of this incident. For what purpose? Maybe to save face if China eventually withdraws its rig? That what this thinks.
Last edited: