News Link • Obama Administration

Baiting Dragons, Bears and Lions

06-01-2014 • http://www.unz.com, By Philip Giraldi

In a recent round of finger pointing, the Obama Administration blamed China for being both "dangerous and provocative" in its crisis in relations with Vietnam. The specific incident that led to the rebuke was rioting in Vietnam in response to a Chinese oil drilling rig being placed in disputed waters in the South China Sea. Thirty expat Chinese citizens involved in businesses in Vietnam were injured and six killed and the total death toll was reported to be twenty-one. Admittedly, China has a lousy claim over the vast territory in the Sea, dotted by mostly uninhabited islands, that it insists belong to it for historic reasons, but the right to exploit the region economically is also disputed by a number of other bordering states, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Brunei and the Philippines.