Vietnam Is Quietly Copying China’s Artificial Islands Strategy | WSJ

Vietnam is rapidly creating artificial land in the disputed South China Sea, breaking its own record for land reclamation in the shadows of Chinese aggression. Hanoi is quietly conducting dredging operations to expand and build military infrastructure on-top of atolls in the Spratly group of islands, where China has also created land.

WSJ explains why Hanoi is fortifying while keeping close diplomatic ties with both the U.S. and Beijing.

Chapters:
0:00 Vietnam’s activity in the South China Sea
0:23 Location of islands and strategic importance
1:40 Overlapping claims
2:33 China island build
3:44 Military prep
5:24 China’s response

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[hahaVN]

You wanna know how quiet it is?
Me as a Vietnamese learned about this in Western media coverage. That how quiet this is.

Edit:
I want to clarify that they did announce this on the official State Military TV. So the one who wants to know and "needs" to know will know; the one who does not bother what the military does will not know. This is a genius move if you ask me.

[amunra]

Er….. Vietnam were building these artificial islands waaay before China did….Its just the US State Department and the CIA focused on China more

[JustCassually]

We have been hearing about this for a long time in the Philippines for months. But somehow, it's brushed under the rug because our primary issue is with the PRC. Vietnam don't ram our boats nor do they block our fishermen in their traditional fishing grounds. Vietnam can be reasoned with, while China will just ram and water cannon Filipinos away from our EEZ. That make's all the difference.

[EvilAbed]

Technically, China copied Vietnam's artificial islands strategy first

[superpowerdragon]

fun fact, vietnam was the first country to build artificial islands in south china sea, china just learned it from vietnam

[crampamn]

These islands rightfully belong to South East Asian countries. China has no right to claim these islands. I support Vietnam 🇻🇳 and the Philippines 🇵🇭 ✊️

[bigbear]

China occupied Vietnam’s Hoang Sa archipelago in 1974. They illegally built military bases on the archipelago. Vietnam only built islands on a very small scale to protect Vietnam’s islands in the Truong Sa archipelago. China has built on a scale thousands of times larger than Vietnam’s before. And now, not only do they want to occupy the entire Truong Sa archipelago, they also intend to occupy the shoals on Vietnam’s southern continental shelf. China’s greed is endless.

[lianwuyeah]

The strategy of building artificial islands was initiated by Vietnam earlier than others; the only difference lies in the scale of the projects.

[ngandang]

VN gov could be building some artificial islands but surely it will never beat up fishermen like China did, only China would do that

[haraffael]

Vietnam owns those parts of the island group. The China illegaly occupy islands in the Paracel and Spratly archipelagos

[arvingascarfamily]

Don't antagonize Vietnam bruh! I've been there and they are so peaceful and beautiful

[LợiNguyễn-zl]

There's nothing wrong with that when those islands obviously belong to Vietnam.

[AhmetTekin]

Vietnam 🇻🇳 has legitimate rights to do so because it's within their water. China 🇨🇳 does not.

[bonnolog]

On the bright side with this technology, we can save the smaller islands from rising sea levels.

[meocaott]

Unlike China, Vietnam is no threat to navigation and fishing around the area...
And the Filipinos also occupy several isles nearby and build things there as well.

[adamhan]

Vietnam is very smart to keep quiet of its rapid expansion in South China Sea, a sweat spot in geopolitics.

[thangnguyenhuu]

Vietnam should have had all these islands, however, the late unification of the country led to China and the Philippines taking advantage of the opportunity to rob the islands, causing many problems as they do today. Now there is peace for economic development, but if any country has great ambitions, war is inevitable, at that time it will decide who will control the East Sea. As Vietnamese people, if we can maintain this peaceful situation, it will be good for all the countries involved, but if the situation is more extreme, all Vietnamese people will be determined to keep and regain all the former Vietnamese territories.

[lagrangewei]

China actually follow Vietnam in building artificial island. Vietnam build 14 island before China started it project. yet the US government and media does not acknowledge this. and Vietnam and China isn't the only one, Malaysia also reclaim on 2 island. Taiwan on 1 island. this is not that unusally, even Philippines is doing it.

[Scribit]

*THE ISLANDS ARE SPEAKINNG VIETNAMIES! *

[tobiellucas]

If there's any country that should reclaim these islands, it should be all the SEA countries within there, not China.