Worst crisis in decades: Vietnam riots over Chinese drilling spread, killing more than 20- More than 20 people have died and over 100 were injured in Vietnamese riots, signaling the worst breakdown in relations with China in decades. This follows China’s oil drilling in disputed waters. Hundreds of Chinese have now fled to neighboring Cambodia. At least five deaths were reported to be Vietnamese, with the rest having been described as mainland Chinese. The mass rioting included over 20,000 workers on Tuesday, before they split into smaller groups and started attacking factories near Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon. A day after looting and arson had erupted in two southern Vietnamese provinces, aggression by locals against the Chinese initiative had resulted in about 1,000 of them attacking the country’s biggest steel mill overnight, local newspapers and medics reported on Thursday. There were about a hundred people sent to the hospital last night. Many were Chinese. More are being sent to the hospital this morning, Reuters heard by phone from a doctor at the Ha Tinh General Hospital. But the brunt of the Thursday violence was borne by Taiwanese firms (as well as some South Korean ones), as the ensuing chaos of the large-scale attack on the industrial complex resulted in the angry Vietnamese mistaking Taiwanese vehicles labeled ‘Formosa Plastics’ for Chinese ones. Officials from the company – Taiwan’s biggest investor in Vietnam – were not available for comment. Now there are reports of at least 600 Chinese fleeing the country for the Cambodian capital, according to the latest information from Phnom Penh. Its national police spokesman told the agency that the runaways had crossed the border at the Bavet international checkpoint and that they have presently been settled at “at guest houses and hotels in Phnom Penh, with around 100 people staying in Bavet town.”
Posted on: Fri, 16 May 2014 05:56:16 +0000
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