China/Vietnam/South China Sea: Vietnam Opens Spratlys to Tourism Amid Sea Dispute with China

Jun 4, 2015 | John Boudreau and Diep Pham, Bloomberg
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Vietnam is inviting tourists to the front lines in its tense dispute with China over territorial claims in the South China Sea, organizing the country’s first tour of the contested Spratly islands this month. The six-day tour, which will include visits to two above-water islands and two submerged islands and a national flag-raising ceremony, is planned weeks after a U.S. surveillance plane was warned by the Chinese navy to stop patrolling near reefs China claims in the Spratlys area. China, which claims about 80 percent of the sea based on a nine-dash line drawn on a 1940s map, has clashed with Vietnam and the Philippines over the territory.