Vietnamese and China’s Embassy in Hanoi hold verbal battle regarding South China Sea

The Chinese Embassy’s Facebook page in Hanoi is fully exploited by its diplomats as a media channel that not only propagates and promotes Chinese culture, praising the motto “4 goods-16 golden words” regarding the relationship between the two fraternal communist countries, acclaiming China’s anti-pandemic COVID-19, but also for the purpose of criticizing the US in every aspect from the U.S. dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic to the protests that lead to violence in the US or the US naval ships’ deployment into the East Sea (South China Sea) to assert freedom of navigation. When the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi touched the South China Sea where Vietnam had undisputed sovereignty over the islands, the Vietnamese online community did not sit still and let China propagate bullshit on Vietnamese territory.

The Chinese Embassy on May 30 posted a status on its Facebook page opposing the USS Mustin destroyer’s entry in the territorial waters of an archipelago that China called Xisha but was actually Vietnam’s Hoàng Sa (Paracels). The status made the Vietnamese angry.

Screenshot of the Chinese Embassy’s Facebook page of May 30 protesting against US destroyers entering Paracels territorial waters

The Chinese Embassy in Hanoi wrote: “Colonel Ly Hoa Man, Southern Military Region Spokesman of the People’s Liberation Army, said:

On May 28, without the permission of the Chinese government, the USS Mustin destroyer of the US Navy illegally entered China’s Xisha territorial waters. The PLA Navy and Air Force of the Southern Military Region the People’s Liberation Army of China monitored, verified, and warned and chased the ship on the entire voyage. The provocative act of the US side seriously violated China’s sovereignty and security interests, seriously violated the relevant principles of International Law, seriously damaged the stability and peace of the South China Sea region.”

As of June 15, the post received 101 emoticons and 381 comments. This is one of the posts with the largest amount of interaction on the Chinese representative’s Facebook page in Vietnam in recent years.

Of the more than 380 comments, only about 20 are displayed below the article.

It seems that this diplomatic mission has hidden most of the Vietnamese comments.

In the remaining comments there is a comment by Facebooker named Vu Thuy Dung: “It is not your territorial sea. The US has no rights and neither do you!” The comment has received the consent of so many people. The comment received over 40 emotions.

A Facebook fan named Pham Hieu wrote: “The sea area is not Chinese, please don’t lie. Chinese people violate so there are Americans who will punish.”

Facebooker Hoang Long also expressed objections: “Stop it, do not propagate nonsense! It is not China’s territorial waters!”

Another Vietnamese named Huynh Duc Binh asked: “Who is in Vietnamese territorial waters?”

This post by the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi allegedly responded to U.S. Navy information saying that the USS Mustin destroyer with Arleigh Burke-class guided missiles on May 28 crossed the line through the Paracels in the South China Sea to assert freedom of navigation.

According to the US Naval Institute (USNI), a US Navy spokesman said the USS Mustin was approaching the Paracel Islands to “uphold the rights, freedom of navigation and the lawful use of waters” recognized by international law by challenging innocent passages imposed by China, Taiwan and Vietnam, as well as challenging China’s claims to roads basic sea around Paracels.”

US freedom of navigation operations took place on May 28 after the Global Times newspaper on May 19 reported that the Chinese navy used new technology to grow vegetables on Phu Lam Island in the Paracels.

Chen Xiangmiao, an expert at the China National Research Institute on the South China Sea, said that growing and harvesting vegetables in the Paracels are a prerequisite for further activities such as raising pigs and chickens. Chen stated that this is a condition to show that Phu Lam is an island because it “has the ability to maintain conditions for people to live and have their own economic life,” in order to reject the decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016 that most of the features in the South China Sea are not considered islands under the provisions of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and do not have the full range of territorial waters, contiguous zones, exclusive economic zones and continental shelf as land territory.

On May 31, the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi wrote: “Global Times’ editor-in-chief Hu Xijin sent a message to Mr. Michael Pompeo: ‘Mr. Pompeo, please take your side of the wrathful people in Minneapolis, in the same way that you always said you were on the side of Hongkongers!”

Or on June 2, the agency wrote: “Recently, the case of Minnesota police in the US to use violence to carry out the task of killing a black man in the US, causing a riot outbreak in many places across the US. While Americans took to the streets to express extreme indignation towards racism, US President Donald Trump posted a Tweeter with the content “when the looting began, the gunfire began,” naturally considers protesters rioters and should be shot down. Meanwhile, those throwing bombs, causing the destruction of public property, the execution of those who oppose violent acts in the name of democracy in Hong Kong, American politicians considered them freedom fighters. While dealing with domestic conflict, the US government has not forgotten the threat of imposing sanctions on Hongkong because of China’s formulation of national security laws in HongKong, despite the US government’s ability to impose sanctions on national security laws on Americans at any time.”

It is only a social network page of the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi that criticizes the US so can imagine both its communication and diplomatic systems attacking the US in China.

Screenshot of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s first statement on June 6 about ‘China’s downstream propaganda”

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on June 6 had to announce that China took advantage of the death of a black person in the US to spread false information. The full notice is as follows:

The Chinese Communist Party’s cruel use of George Floyd’s tragic death to justify their authoritarian denial of basic human dignity once again reveals their true nature. Like other dictatorships in history, they lie no more crude, as long as they satisfy their power ambitions. These ridiculous propaganda tricks are hard to beat.

With such acts, the contrast between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) becomes ever more clear.

In China, when a church is burned down, the brutal act was almost certainly led by the CCP. In the US, if a church is burned, the instigators will be punished by the government, and the government will bring fire engines, water, relief and consolation to the believers.

In China, peaceful protesters, from Hongkong to Tiananmen Square, will all be suppressed by armed militants, simply because they dare to speak out. Reporters who dare to report these unjust incidents will be subject to long-term sentences. But in the US, law enforcement agencies – both state and federal – will bring overbearing police to justice, welcoming peaceful protests at the same time to forcefully stop violence and looting, and at the same time enforcing constitutional power to protect property and freedom for all. Our free press provides comprehensive coverage of these events, for the entire world to see.

In China, when doctors and journalists warned early of the danger of a new disease, the CCP will silence and kidnap them, lie about the number of deaths and outbreaks. In the US, we value the lives and create transparent health systems to treat, cure and fund global anti-epidemic solutions – more than any other country.

In China, when people have a different opinion from the CCP’s system, the Party will imprison them in re-education labor camps. And, when people – like those in Hongkong and Taiwan, who came from a glorious civilization that has existed for thousands of years – celebrate freedom, this freedom is being crushed in mainland, and mainland people must obey the Party’s orders and requirements. On the contrary, in the US, even in riotous protests, we uphold our commitment to the rule of law, transparency and inalienable rights.

In recent days Beijing has continued to show its disregard for truth and contempt for the law. The CCP’s propaganda efforts – seeking to equate US actions to the death of George Floyd with the CCP’s continued rejection of people’s fundamental freedoms and rights – should be viewed as a fraudulent act.

In its best times, China ruthlessly imposed communism. In the face of the most difficult challenges, the US protects freedom.

Thoibao.de (Translated)

Kasse animation 7.8.2023