VietNamNet Bridge – The Chinese administration, when launching its illegal acts in the East Sea, has been supported by its media, a special force that helps distort events in the region and fool people.

China's HD-981 rig. Photo: Xinhua

Means of communication play a very important role in driving public opinion. Therefore, they have big impacts on any policies, home or foreign. They are compared to the bridge that helps convey people’s opinions to the authorities, and as the tool for authorities to explain their policies to the people.

As for China, mass media also serves as a propaganda instrument as well. Most of the press and media agencies in China are under the state’s control, which only disseminates the Chinese government’s viewpoints and policies.

How has the Chinese propaganda engine been doing during the HD 981 oil rig deployment campaign?

Providing wrong information

After Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s speech at the 24th ASEAN Summit, Chinese newspapers published a series of articles on the installation of the HD 981 oil rig.

Chinese newspapers all had the same argument: that the location where HD 981 is set up is entirely within its sovereignty and jurisdictional area. Chinese media argue that all the activities of its military patrols, mineral and oil exploration and exploitation in the area are consistent with Chinese sovereignty and with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Chinese website ifeng.com on May 7 made unfair accusation that Vietnam is trying to induce Japan and India, two countries which have territorial disputes with China, to join with it to balance the power.

On May 13, Shen Zhen Television reported that the government of Vietnam used numerous tricks to pressure China.

A researcher from the Chinese Global and Asian Strategies Research Institute argued that it would be very difficult to reach a consensus from involved parties, including Vietnam, on the idea of putting aside disputes to exploit the treasure in the East Sea together. Therefore, China unilaterally deployed the drilling rig as a way to claim its sovereignty in the area.

She also emphasized that the oil rig would serve as a testing method for the settlement of disputes in the East Sea. She wrote on ifeng.com that Vietnam has made the oil rig deployment activity complicated and has excessively criticized China, behaviors which would badly affect Vietnam-China bilateral relations.

Meanwhile, a representative of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs provided false information on CCTV that from May 3-7, Vietnam sent 35 ships to the site and attacked Chinese ships 171 times. He misled the public with the claim that most of the Vietnamese vessels on the site were military, while insisting that China did not send any military troops there. China said that Chinese ships were attacked from under water by Vietnamese frogmen, fishing nets, and other objects.

A dangerous tool of China

The Chinese administration, through its communication engine, has been trying to gloss over the illegal acts it is carrying out on Vietnamese territory, molding public opinion in a way that brings favor to it.

Chinese leaders have been nurturing expansionism for the past thousands of years. The propaganda engine regulated by the leaders, therefore, leads Chinese people to misunderstanding.

In long run, skewed Chinese viewpoints will make it more difficult to settle disputes based on argument and reason. The Chinese communication apparatus, double-tongued and equivocal – especially on the issue of sovereignty – will not help settle the internal problems of the country. To the contrary, they will make the situation worse and more dangerous.

Vietnamese mass media needs to help protect Vietnamese territory with its convincing arguments, explaining the Vietnamese fight for justice to the international community. Youtube  and social networks should be considered as effective tools for transmitting information to the Chinese people, especially given that Vietnamese websites are being blocked by their government.

Small countries can put themselves at an advantage if they follow smart policies.

Nguyen Tang Nghi

The Hanoi University of Social Sciences and Humanity