China/Vietnam/South China Sea: China-Vietnam South China Sea Spat in the Spotlight

Jul 25, 2017 | Prashanth Parameswaran, Diplomat
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On July 24, the BBC cited both a Southeast Asian oil industry source and a Vietnamese diplomatic source as confirming that Hanoi had terminated a gas-drilling expedition that had begun last month in a disputed area of the South China Sea following a threat from China that it would attack Vietnamese bases in the Spratly Islands. According to the industry source, the company behind the drilling, Repsol of Spain, was ordered to leave the area Vietnam called Block 136-03 (and China calls Wanan Bei-21) about 250 miles off of Hanoi’s southeast coast.