RE: Vietnam & China

[Tuan Pham <tuan.pham@unsw.edu.au>]

>Hanoi, Mar. 21 (IPS) --  Vietnam and China are once again
>sparring over disputed territory in the South China Sea, this time
>as a result of Beijing's ongoing exploration for oil in waters that 
>Hanoi says are within its jurisdiction.
>
>...
>The Chinese Kantan-3 oil rig was drilling near the Spratly
>Islands, in an area  Vietnam calls Block 113 some 64 nautical miles
>off Chan May cape halfway down the country's coast. Near Da Nang,
>it is some 71 nautical miles off China's Hainan island.
>

Hi everybody

Among all the fuss has anyone bothered to check the map?

If the Chinese oil rig is between Danang and Hainan, then
it can't be "near the Spratlys", which is between Southern
VN and Borneo. The Spratlys are about 1000 km from the
area described! See
http://www.reedbooks.com.au/heinemann/hot/spratloc.html

Peter_Donahoe@notes.rbs.org wrote

  closely at this latest incident...  The rig is only 6 miles closer
  to VN than it is to Hainan.

A Viet king said: Never give even one inch of land
to the Chinese. Laugh it off all you like, that
attitude has served Vietnam well over the last 1000
years. The Vietnamese's ethnic cousins, the Yueh people
of Southern China (Canton), are now called Chinese.

Cheers
Tuan Pham