Vietnam’s ‘Soft Diplomacy’ in the South China Sea

Jun 29, 2016 | James Borton
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China’s unilateral sovereignty claims on more than 80 percent of the international sea and massive military build-up on artificial islands over the past two years has sparked a sea change in Vietnam’s identity, from a Red River delta rice producing culture to a maritime nation. These shifts in the nation’s narrative are now marked by stories about Vietnam’s ancestral fishing grounds and its identity as a sea-oriented country.

Vietnam’s S-shaped long coral reef surrounded coastline runs along the eastern border down to the south, stretching more than 3,500 kilometers. About 80 percent of the population lives by the shore. Out at sea, thousands of coral reefs, sea grass beds, and other shallow-water ecosystems are rapidly being destroyed and buried as China rushes to stake claim to the region. Beijing’s land reclamation project is undermining the ecological connection between the Spratly Islands and the South China Sea, choking off the supply of nutrients upon which these ecosystems depend.