Vietnam's activity in the South China Sea on the rise

Hanoi: Vietnam has challenged China by newly commencing dredging and construction work in the disputed areas of the ‘South China Sea’. Apart from this construction, tensions are also increasing between the Vietnamese fishing boats and Chinese coast guards. Meanwhile, the Chinese foreign ministry had claimed a few days back that China was receiving a positive response in resolving the ‘South China Sea’ dispute with its neighboring countries. On these grounds, China’s reaction is anticipated over Vietnam’s activity.

It is being claimed that the aforementioned construction work is being carried out in the Spratly Island group in the ‘South China Sea‘ territory. The US-based satellite firm ‘Planet Labs’ has released satellite imagery of the past few days. This firm claims that a lot of activity is visible in the past few days on the ‘Ladd Reef’ which is on the southern fringe of the Spratly Islands. They provided information on the changes that were visible in specific areas based on the satellite images taken by ‘Planet Labs’ on 30th November.

A few weeks ago, the ‘Ladd Reef’ was an Island completely submerged at high tide in the ‘South China sea’. However, the recent satellite images display a light house, a floating security outpost and a small contingent of Vietnamese soldiers deployed here. The US-based firm has also claimed that there are few ships around this Island and a dredging activity is being carried out in this sea territory.

The motive behind deployment of Vietnamese army on ‘Ladd Reef’ and dredging in this part of the sea is yet to be ascertained. But after taking into consideration the type of dredging and construction work around it, Vietnam also seems to be following China’s footsteps and appears to be possibly creating artificial Islands. Nevertheless, ‘Planet Labs’ has also claimed that there are signs of more dredging and construction work being carried out by Vietnam on the ‘Ladd Reef’ in the near future.

Previously in the month of August, Vietnam had started the construction of an artificial Island in the ‘Spratly’ Island group. It had even deployed rocket launchers on some of the Islands. International news agencies claim that these rockets have the capability of targetting Chinese ships in the ‘South China Sea’. However, Vietnam has refrained from giving any statement regarding the construction of such islands or the deployment of rocket launchers.

Nearly one month ago, Vietnam’s senior leaders had visited China. During this visit, there were talks over the tensions in the ‘South China Sea’. Like Vietnam, China and Taiwan have also claimed their rights over the ‘South China Sea’. China, on the other hand, has already expressed its indisputable sovereignty over the ‘South China Sea’ and has begun assembling its troops for it. But China had claimed to have resolved the disputes in the last month, after meetings with the Vietnamese and Philippine leaders.

In the wake of these events, Vietnam’s activity within the limits of the Spratly group of Islands may risk inciting China.