Vietnamese protesters marched through the streets of Hanoi for the fourth straight Sunday calling for China to stop entering Vietnamese waters in the South China Sea. The protest echoes the complaints of Manila against Beijing, which has been supported by six Southeast Asian countries as China is increasingly being accused of encroachments as it rises to become the second strongest economy in the world. Last Friday, Tokyo also raised a howl of protest after a Chinese exploration vessel entered waters off tsunami-hit Fukushima prefecture in northeastern Japan ostensibly to check for radiation levels. The news story from Hanoi said that protests are extremely rare in Vietnam and are quashed quickly by security forces. But this time the Vietnamese government has allowed the demonstrations to go on for the past four Sundays amid tight security. China and Vietnam have traded diplomatic jabs over the past month after clashes in parts of the South China Sea claimed by both countries. Vietnam accuses Chinese vessels of hindering oil exploration surveys in an area 200 nautical miles off its central coast that it claims as its exclusive economic zone. China says Vietnam illegally entered its waters near the disputed Spratly islands and endangered Chinese fishermen. The two sides have a long history of maritime scrapes, mainly involving areas around the potentially resource-rich Spratly and Paracel islands, which are claimed all or in part by Vietnam, China, the Philippines and other Asian countries. The South China Sea, which hosts small atolls known as the Spratlys and Paracel islands, is a major sea-lane believed to be rich in gas and other mineral resources and tensions in the region is being watched by other countries. Whatever animosity has arisen between China and other Asian countries with claims to the island in the South China Sea must be resolved peacefully. China has the greater responsibility not to escalate any tenstion over the controversial sea-lane that has been described as a powder keg that could start an armed conflict. China has been wary toward the possibility that the US, a close ally of the Philippines, may intervene in the dispute, but it should not cause any provocation that may trigger armed hostilities that may become difficult to contain later on. China has been denying mounting accusations that it has been illegally encroaching on atolls claimed by other countries. It must support its words with actions and, as an economic and military giant, must lead the way to ease the tensions over the conflicting claims in the South China Sea. __
