Posted on 01/07/2013 6:52:37 AM PST by Army Air Corps
In the ongoing dispute over the Spratly Islands claimed by China and Vietnam, the latest development is that China is opening up 3G services on the islands, not only to Chinese soldiers but also for the countrys fishermen.
The development will be yet another drop of lemon in the souring of Sino-Vietnamese relations in the past year. The Vietnamese government even voiced its complaint on nguyentandung.org, the Vietnamese Prime Ministers website. The island disputes recently ignited with anti-China protests in May 2011 after Chinese patrol boats attacked two Vietnamese oil exploration ships near the Spratly Islands.
Chinese soldiers and fishermen will now be able to text message, call, and chat online with family back home over the new 3G network. This upgrade to 3G from regular cellular coverage (started in 2011) and the recent 3G network in the disputed Paracel Islands in July 2012 signals a more permanent Chinese presence on the rocky outposts.
Amid Chinas escalating 3G and infrastructure support for the islands, and other points of contention between the two neighbors, my question is this: Have Vietnamese telcos provided 3G to Vietnamese citizens living on those same islands? If not, Vietnam is falling behind in the race for an administrative claim over the islands. Vietnam has had cellular coverage on the Spratly Islands since 2006 but word on the street is theres no 3G yet.
This news comes just a couple of weeks after a Chinese computer game was banned in Vietnam for showing the contested islands as being Chinese in the in-game maps.
The Spratly Islands are claimed by six different countries in total, including Brunei, the Peoples Republic of China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam.
Pei Ping
After defeating the USA—polishing off China should be a piece of cake for Vietnam. Maybe they could get some Chinese Actors to march in the streets for Vietnamese rights or start protests at the Chinese Universities? They won the war—let them fight this one by themselves! I put my money on Red China. They thought we were bad—just wait til you see the Han Chinese Boys in action! Vietnam better just suck it up and give up on those islands—they are now part of the new Chinese Empire.
Viet Nam and China have a long, bloody history together. The Sino-Vietnamese War (Third Indochione War) was a more recent chapter in the story.
FYI ping.
Indochione = Indochinese
Charlie tried to stick their lot with the Soviets......ooops, that didn’t work out too well for them.
Because of the treaty we signed with them to end the war, I don’t think we’re allowed to involve ourselves militarily anyway. Unless they find some other country to help them, they’d be on their own.
Also, the issue involves more than *just* the PRC and the SRVN; the area has several overlapping claims.
Thanks for adding the map.
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