ANALYSIS: Chinese leader visits Hanoi as tone shifts over sea dispute

By Marianne Brown Dec 21, 2011, 5:30 GMT

Hanoi - China's Vice President Xi Jinping was in Hanoi Wednesday as Vietnam's relationship with its neighbour takes a different tack over the issue of competing territorial claims in the South China Sea.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Luong Thanh Nghi said the event was very important for bilateral ties and would include talks on international issues of mutual and regional concern.

The muted tone contrasts with earlier in the year, when state media reported accusations by Vietnam that China had cut the cables of an oil survey vessel in the sea, renewing a decades-old conflict.

The alleged attack sparked several weeks of rare protests in Hanoi against perceived Chinese aggression.

The controversy centres on the Paracel and Spratly islands, which are believed to be rich in fish and mineral resources. China claims the whole area, whereas Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan stake partial claims.

Vietnam's balancing act with China is a delicate one. China is a major trading partner but the two countries share a bitter history. Many of the protesters in June displayed posters with the names of 53 people killed when China took the Paracel islands in 1974.

The banned political party Viet Tan alleged that previous 'secret deals' between Hanoi and Beijing 'have been detrimental to the interests of the Vietnamese people.'

After allowing the protests for 11 weeks, Vietnam kept its head down. In October, the two nations signed a six-point agreement on discussing border issues.

Tensions appear to have calmed. At the annual meeting of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific last month, diplomatic analyst Dang Dinh Quy said the South China Sea was no longer a 'sensitive' issue. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also urged participants not to speak to reporters 'so they would not be distracted from the content of the workshop.'

'The Vietnamese have met with China and learned that continued diplomatic provocations will only make matters worse,' said Carl Thayer, Vietnam and South-East Asia analyst at the Australian Defence Academy. 'Vietnam is very clever if not disingenuous in getting other parties to criticize the Chinese while promoting cooperation.'

By communicating in that way, Thayer said, Vietnam can inform China that it tried to tone down remarks that might offend China.

Not everyone agrees that Xi's visit will be significant for resolving the South China Sea issues.

David Koh from the Institute of South-East Asian Studies in Singapore called it a chance to bolster diplomatic relations.

'There have been few if any visits by top Chinese leaders in recent years, and so the visit of Mr Xi is a good opportunity for both sides to build a stronger rapport than has been apparent in the past few years,' he said.

'Both China and Vietnam have many other channels other than official visits of top leaders to communicate their views to each other. The general secretary of Vietnam's Communist Party visited China two months ago, and the South China Sea was already discussed then and might not be on the agenda of the visit of Mr Xi.'

Koh dismissed claims that any discussions of the South China Sea would be a test for Xi's political career.

'Diplomacy skills I think are not made simply from a single set of issues,' he said.

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