In the News

As much as I like to watch China news, it can sometimes be helpful to read about what's happening on the periphery, yet still related to China. Here's an interesting article on Vietnam's recent comings and goings. It helps broaden one's perspective, and divides an often myopic a U.S. perspective of China's relations with the world.

China's rise prompts Vietnam to strengthen ties to other nations
That change of perception has led Vietnam to embark on an extraordinary undertaking to befriend the world as a hedge against China. And prominent among its new intimates is the United States, which is equally eager for partners to help it cope with Beijing.

"It is always good to have a new friend," mused Vice Minister of Defense Nguyen Chi Vinh in an interview. "It is even better when that friend used to be our foe."

Among the various issues that Vietnam is looking at are sovereignty over the South China Sea (all of which China claims as it's own, and other smaller nations dispute the claim), and the Mekong River (China possesses the upper region and has built a large network of dams, and the waterflow to the lower regions possessed by Southeast Asia is gradually diminishing).

Sometimes the most important developments occur, not at the center, but at the periphery.

Maps for the geographically challenged. The first is of the South China Sea dispute. China claims the territory in the red dotted line. The blue lines indicate the United Nations international agreement on territorial waters, which basically says, a country bordering water has special economic rights to an area that extends 200 nautical miles straight out from its coast. China has signed and ratified this agreement. Ironically, the U.S., who helped shape the agreement, has signed it but not ratified it, due to internal disagreement. See the Wikipedia articles on UNCLOS and why the U.S. has not ratified it for helpful information.


The second map is of the Mekong river. You can see that it begins in China (for a long long ways, all the way up into Tibet), and comes down between Myanmar and Laos, through Laos, between Laos and Thailand, passes through Cambodia and then Vietnam before dumping into the ocean.