China has re-deployed its Haiyang Shiyou 981 oil rig near Vietnamese waters at a time that coincided with the Vietnamese National Assembly’s election of new leaders. It could be supposed that the move is a test for Vietnam’s new leadership?

According to Ministry of Foreign Affairs Le Hai Binh, China deployed the Haiyang Shiyou 981 rig near Vietnamese waters from April 3. This is the third time the oil rig has operated in the vicinity of Vietnamese waters since May 2014. The Haiyang Shiyou 981 is located off the mouth of the Gulf of Tonkin in an area that Vietnam and China have yet to demarcate.

On April 5, a Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs representative handed a diplomatic note to the Hanoi-based Chinese Embassy’s representative to protest against China’s act, requesting China to remove the rig from the contested area.

Thousands of Vietnamese people in Germany marched to oppose Chinese illegal actions in the East Sea on April 9, 2016

The public has raised a question that whether China wants to probe Vietnamese new leaders’ through its re-deployment of Haiyang Shiyou 981 at the time when Vietnam elected new leaders. If China intends to do this and test Vietnamese patriotism, it will prove a waste of time.

History has proven that despite changes in politics, Vietnamese patriotism has remained unchanged.

At sessions of the 13th National Assembly, deputies called on the government to show greater determination in protecting the country’s sovereignty in the Spratly and Paracel archipelagos.

In Berlin, Vietnamese overseas recently marched to oppose Chinese illegal actions in the East Sea, seriously violating Vietnamese sovereignty. Earlier, many Vietnamese people in Japan and South Korea also marched to protest the Chinese actions in the East Sea.

Articles in Dan Tri about Chinese actions and violations of Vietnamese waters in the East Sea have often received comments from readers who strongly oppose the Chinese moves and vow to protect the national sovereignty by any means.