Hanoi must stop muddying the waters

Vietnamese vessels have repeatedly disrupted China's drilling activities in the South China Sea ever since Beijing placed its deep-sea oil rig, HD-981, in the waters south of Xisha Islands on May 2. And the deadly anti-China protests across Vietnam amid escalating tensions between Beijing and Hanoi have severely endangered the safety of Chinese nationals and damaged Chinese enterprises' property in Vietnam.

The main dispute between the two neighbors is whether or not China has the right to operate the rig located 17 nautical miles (31.5 kilometers) from Zhongjian Island of China's Xisha Islands and about 150 nautical miles from Vietnam's coast. As the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, operations like the latest one - carried out within China's contiguous zone - started 10 years ago, and a seismic operation and well site survey were conducted in the waters even in May and June last year.

History shows that Chinese authorities have more than once named and mapped the islands in the South China Sea based on various surveys, especially those in 1935, 1947 and 1983. Based on the U-shaped line, which first appeared in an official map published by China in 1948, the then Chinese government claimed sovereignty and jurisdiction over the islands in the South China Sea. Later, the government of New China retained the previous names of the island groups while supplementing them with a list of geographical names in 1983.