Hanoi's actions around oil rig are 'reckless'

Vietnam has carried out intensive disruption of a Chinese oil company's drilling activities in China's offshore waters since May 2 in spite of China's dissuasion and warning.

The Vietnamese media, however, have wrongfully accused China of illegally placing the oil rig HD-981 inside Vietnam's exclusive economic zone and spared no effort to portray Vietnam as a victim bullied by China. Instead of ferreting out the truth, some foreign media have simply parroted the Vietnamese side of the story.

The truth is, so far China and Vietnam have not reached consensus on delimiting their exclusive economic zones and continental shelves, but the waters in which the oil rig is operating are only 17 nautical miles (31.5 kilometers) from Zhongjian Island of China's Xisha Islands while about 150 nautical miles from Vietnam's coast.