ASIA & PACIFIC
21:41 13.08.2016 (updated 04:02 14.08.2016) 
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Tensions in the South China Sea resulting from The Hague arbitrational court’s ruling against China’s longstanding claim to the disputed area are at risk of spilling over with rhetoric and tactics escalating.

On Thursday, China’s state-run Global Times newspaper warned Vietnam against the deployment of rocket launchers targeting Chinese facilities reminding Hanoi of the devastation that ensued the last time the two countries went to war.

"If Vietnam’s latest deployment is targeting China, that would be a terrible mistake," said the editorial. "We hope Vietnam will remember and draw some lessons from history."

The statement follows a Reuters report, citing “Western officials,” that Vietnam had deployed advanced mobile rocket launchers targeting China’s runways and military installations amid a brewing regional dispute in the South China Sea that the United States has been all too willing to meddle in.

"Fortifying the islands with rocket launchers, if proved to be true, will only demonstrate Vietnam’s determination to strengthen its military deployment," said the editorial. "Vietnam has been enhancing its control of the islets and islands in Nansha in order to consolidate the beneficial status quo."
Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry vehemently denied the report following the stern warning from China’s state media saying that the information about the rocket launchers was "inaccurate" although US State Department officials acknowledged that they were aware of the report and did not refute its claims.

The editorial ultimately laid the blame at the feet of the West, most prominently the United States, that incited the regional diplomatic row by encouraging the Philippines to seek a ruling from The Hague arbitrational court contesting China’s longstanding claim to most of the South China Sea territory.

"It can be expected that the West won’t easily give up using arbitration as leverage to pile pressure on China and continue to stoke more tensions in the region," opined the editorial. "The regional stakeholders should be wary of the West’s tactics."

Beijing has warned its people to be prepared to go to war over the valuable waters and islands of the South China Sea, home to one of the world’s largest natural gas and oil deposits and through which over 40% of the world’s shipborne trade travels each day. China has already deployed combat patrols to the area in an effort the head off regional efforts to seize on the arbitration court’s rulings to deprive Beijing of its historically held territory.
 

WORLD NEWS | Wed Aug 10, 2016 3:23pm EDT
By Greg Torode | HONG KONG

Vietnam has discreetly fortified several of its islands in the disputed South China Sea with new mobile rocket launchers capable of striking China's runways and military installations across the vital trade route, according to Western officials.

Diplomats and military officers told Reuters that intelligence shows Hanoi has shipped the launchers from the Vietnamese mainland into position on five bases in the Spratly islands in recent months, a move likely to raise tensions with Beijing.

The launchers have been hidden from aerial surveillance and they have yet to be armed, but could be made operational with rocket artillery rounds within two or three days, according to the three sources.
Vietnam's Foreign Ministry said the information was "inaccurate", without elaborating.

Deputy Defence Minister, Senior Lieutenant-General Nguyen Chi Vinh, told Reuters in Singapore in June that Hanoi had no such launchers or weapons ready in the Spratlys but reserved the right to take any such measures.

"It is within our legitimate right to self-defense to move any of our weapons to any area at any time within our sovereign territory," he said.

The move is designed to counter China's build-up on its seven reclaimed islands in the Spratlys archipelago. Vietnam's military strategists fear the building runways, radars and other military installations on those holdings have left Vietnam's southern and island defenses increasingly vulnerable.

Military analysts say it is the most significant defensive move Vietnam has made on its holdings in the South China Sea in decades.

Hanoi wanted to have the launchers in place as it expected tensions to rise in the wake of the landmark international court ruling against China in an arbitration case brought by the Philippines, foreign envoys said.

The ruling last month, stridently rejected by Beijing, found no legal basis to China's sweeping historic claims to much of the South China Sea.

Vietnam, China and Taiwan claim all of the Spratlys while the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei claim some of the area.

"China has indisputable sovereignty over the Spratly islands and nearby waters," China’s Foreign Ministry said in a faxed statement on Wednesday. "China resolutely opposes the relevant country illegally occupying parts of China’s Spratly islands and reefs and on these illegally occupied Spratly islands and reefs belonging to China carrying out illegal construction and military deployments.”

The United States is also monitoring developments closely.

"We continue to call on all South China Sea claimants to avoid actions that raise tensions, take practical steps to build confidence, and intensify efforts to find peaceful, diplomatic solutions to disputes," a State Department official said. 

STATE-OF-THE-ART SYSTEM

Foreign officials and military analysts believe the launchers form part of Vietnam's state-of-art EXTRA rocket artillery system recently acquired from Israel.

EXTRA rounds are highly accurate up to a range of 150 km (93 miles), with different 150 kg (330 lb) warheads that can carry high explosives or bomblets to attack multiple targets simultaneously. Operated with targeting drones, they could strike both ships and land targets.

That puts China's 3,000-metre runways and installations on Subi, Fiery Cross and Mischief Reef within range of many of Vietnam's tightly clustered holdings on 21 islands and reefs.

While Vietnam has larger and longer range Russian coastal defense missiles, the EXTRA is considered highly mobile and effective against amphibious landings. It uses compact radars, so does not require a large operational footprint - also suitable for deployment on islets and reefs.

"When Vietnam acquired the EXTRA system, it was always thought that it would be deployed on the Spratlys...it is the perfect weapon for that," said Siemon Wezeman, a senior arms researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

There is no sign the launchers have been recently test fired or moved.

China took its first Spratlys possessions after a sea battle against Vietnam's then weak navy in 1988. After the battle, Vietnam said 64 soldiers with little protection were killed as they tried to protect a flag on South Johnson reef - an incident still acutely felt in Hanoi.

In recent years, Vietnam has significantly improved its naval capabilities as part of a broader military modernization, including buying six advanced Kilo submarines from Russia.

Carl Thayer, an expert on Vietnam's military at the Australian Defence Force Academy, said the deployment showed the seriousness of Vietnam's determination to militarily deter China as far as possible.

"China's runways and military installations in the Spratlys are a direct challenge to Vietnam, particularly in their southern waters and skies, and they are showing they are prepared to respond to that threat," he said. "China is unlikely to see this as purely defensive, and it could mark a new stage of militarization of the Spratlys."

Trevor Hollingsbee, a former naval intelligence analyst with the British defense ministry, said he believed the deployment also had a political factor, partly undermining the fear created by the prospect of large Chinese bases deep in maritime Southeast Asia.
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"It introduces a potential vulnerability where they was none before - it is a sudden new complication in an arena that China was dominating," he said.
 
(Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom in Washington, Michael Martina in Beijing and Martin Petty in Hanoi.; Editing by Lincoln Feast)
 

 
By John Boudreau and Mai Ngoc Chau
 
August 9, 2016 — 4:10 PM PDT Updated on August 9, 2016 — 11:02 PM PDT
 
The spyware used in cyber attacks on Vietnam’s major airports and national carrier last month is now suspected of having bombarded many more official sites, amid tensions with China over territory in the disputed South China Sea.
 
A malicious code disguised as anti-virus software found lurking in everything from government offices to banks, major companies and universities was the same as that used in "politically-colored" attacks on two of the country’s biggest airports and Vietnam Airlines, said Ngo Tuan Anh, vice chairman of Hanoi-based network security company Bkav Corp.
 
On July 29, the flight screens at the airports displayed messages critical of Vietnam’s claims to the South China Sea, according to the VnExpress news website. Vietnam and the Philippines have been the most vocal in criticizing China for its increased assertiveness over the area.
 
While more evidence is needed to pinpoint the likely origin, the attacks were clearly political in nature, Anh said. The spyware aimed at Vietnam was from one group or several actors working together that has made assaults on institutions in the Southeast Asian country since 2012, he added. Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to an e-mailed request for comment.
 
‘Political Agenda’
With tensions running high in the South China Sea as China increases its military presence in the area, having reclaimed thousands of acres of land on small shoals and reefs, claimant nations are seeking diplomatic and popular support for their stances. The Vietnam incident highlights the vulnerability of some smaller Southeast Asian states to sustained attacks on their government infrastructure in response to geopolitical frictions.
 
“The attack on the airport and airline appears to be the work of cyber activists who are using it to promote a political agenda,” Wias Issa, senior director for Asia Pacific at security company FireEye Inc., said in an e-mail. “A key challenge is that volatile geopolitics in Vietnam make it a target.”
 
The website of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague went offline in October during a hearing of a Philippine challenge to China’s claim to more than 80 percent of the South China Sea. The court ruled last month in favor of the Philippines, prompting an angry response from the government in Beijing, which did not take part in the arbitration proceedings and said it didn’t recognize the verdict.
 
Vietnam’s Minister of Information and Communications Truong Minh Tuan said the government is reviewing Chinese technology and devices after the July cyber attack, Tuoi Tre newspaper reported. Major Vietnamese telecom operators use Chinese technology, raising the threats of more data breaches, he said.
 
Chinese hacker group 1937cn initially claimed responsibility for the incident, which included Vietnam Airlines’ database of frequent flyers being leaked online, before denying involvement, Tuan said. 1937cn team founder Liu Yongfa was quoted in China’s state-run Global Times as saying he neither admitted nor denied the attacks.
 
"1937cn is a non-government organization,” Liu said. “We do not want to be a victim of the politics."
 
"At a time when the definition of a cyber crime remains vague in China, our team will start a cyber war to defend the country and the people when their sovereignty and rights are violated by foreign countries," Liu said.
 
 

Beimeng Fu
BuzzFeed News World Reporter

Having difficulty falling asleep? Head to Times Square, where a video on the South China Sea’s islands will be playing 120 times a day for another almost two weeks.

China has been in the middle of a dispute over a set of islands and recently lost a key arbitration in the Hague Tribunal.
John Kerry said on Tuesday he supported the resumption of talks between China and the Philippines over the South China Sea, according to Reuters. But on Monday, foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) deleted a reference to the recent international arbitration ruling from a statement, which is seen as a diplomatic victory of China.

Full article available here.