Vietnam Riots Attack Chinese Companies, Prime Minister Calls For Peaceful Protests

The Vietnam riots have been attacking primarily Chinese companies, but the anti-foreigner sentiment has apparently spread to include South Korean and Japanese companies, as well. In response, Vietnam prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung is asking the people in his country to focus on peaceful protests and end the violence.

In a related report by The Inquisitr, the number of deaths from the Vietnam riots being reported vary in number. Although only one death has been confirmed officially, doctors say that “at least 5 Vietnamese and 16 Chinese employees were killed in the riots. In addition to the 21 dead, at least 100 were injured and the numbers continue to increase as more and more victims are hospitalized.” The good news is that there has not been any new reports of violence or armed mobs as of Friday.

The reason the Vietnam riots started in the first place was because of reports of Chinese ships attacking Vietnamese ship by ramming into them and then shooting them with water cannons. China has also set up an oil rig in a region of the South China Sea that is claimed by Vietnam. The US Department of State says, “This unilateral action appears to be part of a broader pattern of Chinese behavior to advance its claims over disputed territory in a way that undermines peace and stability in the region.”

While prime minister Dung applauds the intentions behind the Vietnam riots, he also said they should be using violence to fulfill their goals:

“The prime minister requests and calls on every Vietnamese to boost their patriotism to defend the fatherland’s sacred sovereignty with actions in line with the law. Bad elements should not be allowed to instigate extremist actions that harm the interests and image of the country.”

Authorities have also been trying to draw the attention of the world to the Vietnam riots and the reason they took place. In addition to focusing on the peaceful protests, they also shipped a boatload of foreign journalists to the Chinese oil rigs in order to show them what is occurring in the waters claimed by Vietnam.

In response, China’s Foreign Ministry’s Department of Ocean and Boundary Affairs, Ouyang Yujing, claims Vietnam is trying to make the situation worse:

“It is clear that the aim of the Vietnamese side is to escalate the situation and create tension, or in other words, to generate a media hype and ‘put up a show’ in front of the international audience.”

Because of the Vietnam riots investors have started selling off shares of companies that may be effected if the violence were to escalate.