WWIII just 'round the corner (actually, been going on for years but not official yet; here is one of the battle zones from the history books, complete with graphics)!
Related: Vietnam Getting on China's Nerves
This is going to fray them further:
"Anti-foreigner violence turns deadly, spreads across Vietnam" by Chris Buckley and Chau Doan | New York Times May 16, 2014
HA TINH PROVINCE, Vietnam — Violence against foreign-owned factories has spread across Vietnam and taken a deadly turn, with officials saying Thursday that at least one Chinese worker had been killed and scores more injured when hundreds of protesting Vietnamese rampaged through a steel plant.
The explosion of violence, which started in the industrial suburbs of Ho Chi Minh City, was set off initially by anger at China, which has been pressing territorial claims in the South China Sea. But it has shown signs of broadening into a more general outpouring of frustration.
It says to me one of two things: either we are looking at another US destabilization campaign, for whatever reason, or we have another rotten government like all of them around the world.
I didn't always feel that way, but after thoughtful consideration and the passage of time it has become clear all governments suck.
News agencies quoted government officials as saying that the unrest had spread to 22 of Vietnam’s 63 provinces and carried unconfirmed reports of additional deaths.
In Ha Tinh province in north central Vietnam, hundreds of protesting workers stormed through the Formosa Plastics Group’s steel plant Wednesday afternoon, attacking Chinese citizens who were working there, the company said Thursday. One employee was killed and 90 others were injured in the violence, according to the company.
I mean, really, that could be considered an act of war. Depending on where it was, US might be hollering to invade to protect its people. I am praying to God that cooler heads will prevail in China.
The protesters smashed and looted equipment at the plant and set it on fire, the company said. Managers on the scene called the local authorities, who sent vehicles to evacuate Chinese workers from the plant. The head of the Ha Tinh provincial government went to the factory around 10 p.m. and met with security officials to try to restore order, Formosa Plastics said, but the rioting continued until early Thursday.
Now I am becoming suspicious as to who issued the call for violence. Nothing discredits a movement or protest more than agent provocateur violence.
Then again, if this is all as reported, it's a stunning failure of government. Not even the Communists take care of their people.
Vietnam has seen an influx of international investment in recent years, much of it in manufacturing industries that depend on low-wage labor.
Those were the good jobs you used to have, Americans, until corporations sent them overseas.
I'm not complaining. They made corporate titans and their executive families wealthy beyond belief, and if they are happy, I'm happy. If they are unhappy, what el$e can we do to make 'em happy?
The influx has contributed to more than two decades of uneven, but at times rapid, economic growth in Vietnam and an influx of Chinese workers that has been the source of tensions.
Though the original spark for protests appeared to be China’s deployment of an oil drilling rig and a flotilla of coast guard vessels in disputed waters off the Vietnamese coast, workers and companies from South Korea and Taiwan have also become targets.
They did not use the word but, but what that tells you is the China thing is an excuse like the Muslim video in Benghazi and all the other hor$e $hit excu$es trolled out by my staged and scripted propaganda pre$$ to describe events when they are do to something else entirely, something often hidden by the pos paper.
China Airlines, based in Taiwan, sent two extra aircraft to Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday to handle a surge of Taiwanese people trying to leave Vietnam after its two regularly scheduled flights sold out.
Look at this! The Chinese helping out their enemy Taiwan.
There were also reports that hundreds of mainland Chinese were fleeing across the Cambodian border to Phnom Penh.
Related: Cambodia's Number Comes Up
Also see: Cargo of ivory seized in Cambodia
All that has come up since.
Taiwan’s minister of foreign affairs, David Lin, told legislators Thursday that Taiwan was taking steps to ensure that all its citizens who wanted to leave Vietnam could do so and that Taiwan would seek compensation for damage to its business interests in Vietnam. Government officials in China and Hong Kong issued travel warnings, Reuters reported.
Well, however these protests were started and for whatever reason they appear to have seriously backfired on the Vietnamese government.
As the violence spread to other parts of Vietnam, factory managers in Binh Duong province surveyed the damage Thursday and complained that the police response had been listless or nonexistent.
“I called the police, called and called,” said Pang Chi Wa, who works as a manager at HWA Jong Group, a garment maker based in Taiwan with a factory in Binh Duong. Pang said the crowds of protesters had circled the factory in the surrounding streets several times before mounting their attack.
Sounds like Detroit.
He said his pleas for police help went unanswered.
“Maybe it was deliberate, maybe it was too much for them to deal with, but now they seem to regret it,” he said of the police.
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NEXT DAY UPDATES:
"Vietnam leader warns against violence" | Associated Press May 17, 2014
HANOI — Vietnam’s prime minister sent a text message to millions of citizens urging them to act in defense of the country’s sovereignty following China’s deployment of on oil rig in disputed waters, but said that ‘‘bad elements’’ should not be allowed to engage in violence.
It's a call to war!
The message, sent late Thursday and Friday to subscribers via major state-owned cellphone operators, did not directly condemn the riots that have broken out this week after China’s decision to deploy the rig off the coast of central Vietnam on May 1.
Vietnamese patrol ships sent to disrupt the rig are in a standoff with Chinese ships guarding it.
Anti-China protests that started peacefully have ended in violence and vandalism, with 400 factories suspected of having links with China destroyed or damaged by mobs.
Oh, goodness, look at that.
My sentence of vague, distorted, inside-out, upside-down truth passed to me on a Saturday. One day later the protests have become anti-China(!), and are followed with the hallmarks of a US/CIA destabilization effort. They were trying to provoke tensions, were those activated U.S. assets! That's the codespeak I'm getting from my mea$$ media!
One Chinese worker was killed and scores more injured at a huge Taiwanese steel mill that was overrun by a 1,000-strong crowd.
That's how many assets they have in Vietnam, huh?
There were no reports of any new violence or protests on Friday.
Then things are calming down, thank God.
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Add this to the agenda-pushing today:
"China detains human rights lawyer" | Associated Press May 17, 2014
BEIJING — Chinese authorities detained a human rights lawyer Friday in an ongoing clampdown on journalists, scholars, and lawyers ahead of the June 4 anniversary of the 1989 military crackdown on prodemocracy protests.
Police took Tang Jingling, 43, away from his home in the southern city of Guangzhou and said he was suspected of starting quarrels and provoking trouble, according to his wife, Wang Yanfang. Tang has represented clients complaining of corruption, land seizures, and other grievances.
A man who answered the phone at the district police office that issued the criminal detention notice said he knew nothing about the case. He refused to give his name.
Each year, Beijing detains activists or puts them under house arrest ahead of the June 4 anniversary in an attempt to prevent commemorations of the crackdown on protests centered in Tiananmen Square in central Beijing.
In recent months, state media have accused human rights lawyers of disrupting China’s legal order.
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It's no surprise the Globe is leaving me on a sour note again today; they are really getting on my nerves, as anyone who follows this blog knows.
