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Background Briefing: Vietnam: Media Coverage of the South China Sea Carlyle A. Thayer July 5, 2011

[clientnamedeleted] HowwouldyouassesscoverageintheVietnamesepressoftherecentSouthChina Seaspat?Seeforexample: http://english.vietnamnet.vn/en/society/9451/socialnetworksturnredfor vietnamssovereigntyovereastsea.html Coverage seems to be a mix of patriotism and evidence of historic claims with the oddbitofkowtowingtoChinainbetweenawarofwords.What'syourtakeonit? The Vietnamese authorities are obviously ignoring the protests whilst letting them goahead. ANSWER: Vietnam exercises strict control over its media. Major developments involvingChinaintheSouthChinaSeagounreported. Negativecommentaryiscensored.TherehasbeennoreportingofpublicantiChina demonstrationsoverthepastfiveweeksthatIamawareof. ButoverthelasteighteenmonthsVietnamhaspermittedreportingontheplightof Vietnamese fishermen who are suffering due to China's unilateral fishing ban. And Vietnam has permitted a flow of articles that demonstrate Vietnam's historical connections to islands and rocks in the East Sea. After the cable cutting incident Vietnamevenletformerofficialshavetheirsayonlegalaspectsofthecaseaswell asthebasisforclaimstocompensation. More recently, the Vietnamese press Lao Dong, Tuoi Tre and Thanh Nien have beenpermittedtorespondtovirulentreportingintheChinesemedia,includingby the Englishlanguage Global Times. This reporting has been carefully couched to expressVietnam'sprotest.ButVietnamesenewspapershavenotbeenpermittedto giveasgoodastheytake.Abitofpatriotismandnationalismispermitted,butdirect negativereferencestoChinaarenot.OneopinionpiecethatappearedinDaiDoan Ket was written by a former senior official who had extensive experience in negotiationwithChinaonthelandborderissue.Hewroteunderapseudonym. AsaresultoftherecentvisitbyaspecialenvoytoBeijing,VietnamandChinaagreed inajointpressreleaseto"steerpublicopinion"andtorestrictmaterialthatwould harmrelations.

2 Vietnam'sleadersareundecidedonthebestcourseofaction.Theyriskabacklashif theyuserepressivemeanstohalttheantiChinademonstrations.Thefifthroundof demonstrations took place after the joint press release was signed. There was palpable anger in Ho Chi Minh City the previous week when public security personneltriedtopreventthedemonstrationfromtakingplace. Thesituationisdelicateatthemoment.BothChinaandVietnammusttakeactionto honourtheirjointpressrelease,thiswilltakesometimeandnodoubttherewillbe falsestarts.Eachwillmonitortheactionsoftheothertoensurecomplianceandany transgressionslikelywillbemagnified.