China on Wednesday voiced opposition to Vietnam’s recent developments in the Spratly archipelago in a rare public protest.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said that the Nansha Qundao are China’s inherent territory, referring to the group of islands and reefs known internationally as the Spratlys.
Hanoi has been reclaiming several features within the Spratlys, and is building a 3000-meter (10,000-foot) airstrip on one of them, Barque Canada Reef.
Guo said that the Barque Canada Reef, or Bai Jiao in Chinese, “is a part of the Nansha Qundao and China always opposes relevant countries conducting construction activities on illegally-occupied islands and reefs.”
The reef is actually a rock under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, or UNCLOS, and Vietnam first took possession of it in 1987. It has undergone development at a fast pace since 2021 and the total landfill area more than doubled in one year to nearly 250 hectares (620 acres), as of October 2024.
The Washington-based Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, or AMTI, said that between November 2023 and June 2024, Hanoi created a record 280 hectares (690 acres) of new land across 10 of 27 features it occupies in the Spratly archipelago.
Beijing until now has stayed quiet as China was the first country in the region that built up artificial islands in the South China Sea and militarized them.
By 2021, when Vietnam began its island building program, China had already completed the construction of its “Big Three” artificial islands in the South China Sea – Fiery Cross, Mischief and Subi reefs – and equipped them with runways and military facilities.
Hanoi’s overall dredging and landfill in the South China Sea is roughly half of China’s, according to AMTI.
Vietnam’s ‘Look West’ policy
The Vietnamese government has said little about its work at the features apart from it is intended to protect them and provide typhoon shelter to fishermen.
Vietnam has not responded to the Chinese spokesperson’s rebuke but a Vietnamese analyst said that China’s first known public and official protest may stem from Beijing’s disapproval of the Vietnamese leadership’s ‘look West’ policies.
Hanoi and Washington in 2023 established a comprehensive strategic partnership, on par with Beijing’s partnership with Hanoi.
The new general secretary of the ruling Vietnamese communist party, To Lam, has repeatedly expressed his willingness to develop a strong relationship and cooperation with the United States, said Hoang Viet, a South China Sea analyst.
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Lam has recently also made an unprecedented visit to a war cemetery, where thousands of soldiers who lost their lives fighting invading Chinese troops between 1979-1989 were buried.
“The Chinese must not be pleased with such a visit by Vietnam’s party chief,” said Viet, adding that the protest over Vietnam’s island building revealed that the China-Vietnam relationship, “although it appears close and strong on the outside, has deep cracks inside.”
Another Vietnamese analyst told RFA that in his opinion, “Vietnam is aware of the risks brought by its activities in the South China Sea in relation to China.”
“I hope that the leaders in Hanoi will be wise enough not to be caught up in the middle of the U.S.-China strategic competition,” said Dinh Kim Phuc.
“But they should be firm and decisive when it comes to Vietnam’s sovereignty in the South China Sea,” he added.
Edited by Mike Firn.