China has re-deployed its Haiyang Shiyou 981 oil rig near Vietnamese waters at a time that coincided with the NA's election of new leaders. It could be supposed that the move is a test for Vietnam’s new leadership?

 VietNamNet Bridge – It is not new that Chinese scholars have sought to plant false information in their scientific studies, but this has become more and more blatant.

 A crowd of Vietnamese gathered in front of the Busan Station in South Korea on April 3 to protest China’s increasing violations of Vietnam’s marine sovereignty as well as international law in the East Sea.

 VietNamNet Bridge – On March 14, 1988, China sent many warships to attack and invade Gac Ma (Johnson South Reef) of Vietnam, killing 64 unarmed soldiers on duty on the island.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Steel houses on reefs and rocks in the southern continental shelf act as guards of Vietnam’s sovereignty in the East Sea.

Sea law experts and researchers, policy makers, diplomats and scholars have agreed on the need to address disputes in the East Sea by peaceful measures in line with international law.

 The statement was made by Foreign Ministry Spokesman Le Hai Binh on March 17 in reply to reporters’ query related to China’s recent activities in Vietnam’s Hoang Sa archipelago.

 VietNamNet Bridge - China understands that the United States, Japan and other major powers know about its plots in the East Sea, internationally known as the South China Sea.

While the US President and the ASEAN leaders were discussing issues of regional security at Sunnylands estate in California, in the East Sea, Beijing started the construction of large-sized works in the Hoang Sa Archipelago of Vietnam.

A seminar titled “East Sea: security and economic implications” took place in New Delhi, India on February 24, attracting prestigious scholars from India and diplomatic corps from Russia, Japan, Australia and Singapore.

 Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and the Vietnamese high-level delegation arrived at Palm Spring airport in California on February 14 (US time), beginning a visit to attend the special ASEAN-US summit slated for February 15-16.

National sovereignty in the East Sea issue is sacred and the country’s supreme interest, said Hoang Binh Quan, the head of the Party Central Committee’s Commission for External Relations.

The Indonesian authorities, in collaboration with the Vietnamese Embassy in Jakarta, completed procedures to repatriate 10 Vietnamese fishermen on January 21.

 Vietnamese organisations in France issued a statement on January 18 to condemn China’s pilot flights to the illegally-built airstrip on Chu Thap (Fiery Cross) Reef in Vietnam’s Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago.

 Da Nang's Border Guard Force found 264 arrivals of Chinese ships violating the Viet Nam's sea sovereignty in 2015, Colonel Le Van Phuc, the force's commander, said in a year-end meeting yesterday.

 Vietnam requests that Taiwan (China) immediately end its actions that violate Vietnam’s sovereignty and not to repeat such violations, said Vietnamese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Le Hai Binh on December 13.

Doubts of the possibility of creating a modern Maritime Silk Road that passes through the East Sea continue to dog experts concerned by on-going territorial disputes in the region.

Some researchers previously showed objective viewpoints in their studies, but now they write articles supporting China’s illegal claims in the East Sea, said Tran Huu Thuy Giang, PhD student at the Southern Cross University, Australia.

China is very weak in soft power. Apart from its economic clout, China doesn't have much attraction, said Prof. Bonnie Glaser, from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, in talks with VietNamNet’s Lan Anh.

 The Diplomat, an online international news magazine covering politics, society and culture in the Asia- Pacific, on June 24, published an article about China’s land reclamation in the East Sea, internationally known as the South China Sea.