Vietnam objected to China’s recent cabling in the disputed Paracel Islands, saying it was a violation of Vietnamese sovereignty. Radio Free Asia (RFA) quoted the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry as saying that the country has deployed a Coast Guard vessel to another contested island chain in the South China Sea in an apparent response to the presence of Chinese maritime militias around a Vietnamese outpost.
In Hanoi, Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Thi Thu Hang was asked on Monday about a BenarNews report, also made by Radio Free Asia, that a Chinese ship was laying undersea cable near a Chinese outpost in Paracel or Was repairing.
Hang told reporters (according to the state-run Vietnam News Agency), ‘Vietnam has sufficient historical evidence and legal grounds to reaffirm its sovereignty over the Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) Islands according to international law Huh.‘ He stated that, therefore, any activity relating to the two archipelagos organized without Vietnam’s permission is a violation of its sovereignty and without value.
US-based experts interviewed by the RFA said that cable work has predicted that China is installing an undersea surveillance system for its occupied facilities in Paracel, militarizing the region. Explain that both Vietnam and China claim the Paracel Islands, a series of rocks and reefs north of the South China Sea.
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