Hanoi risking lives to gain world's sympathy, experts say

Hanoi should never put its people's lives at risk in order to seek sympathy from the international community, experts said on Thursday after the Vietnamese government released footage of a clash between Chinese and Vietnamese boats near an oil rig in the Xisha Islands.

The video footage, which shows a Chinese Coast Guard vessel steaming into the back of a Vietnamese fishing boat and tipping it over, was released by the Vietnamese government to confirm Hanoi's version of the incident in the South China Sea on May 26.

Pan Jin'e, a Vietnam studies expert with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the Vietnamese government is playing up the incident in order to gain more sympathy from the international community.