By CHRIS
BRUMMITT Associated Press
HANOI, Vietnam May 17, 2014 (AP)
AP - Vietnam's prime minister ordered an end
Saturday to all "illegal protests" in the country after a week of
violent demonstrations against China's deployment of an oil rig in a disputed
section of the South China Sea.
Last weekend, Vietnam's government took the unusual
step of allowing anti-China street protests — a move widely seen as way for the
authoritarian state to show its displeasure with Beijing for positioning the
oil rig on May 1 in strategic waters claimed by both countries.
In a text message to millions of people on Saturday,
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said the Ministry of Public Security and
provincial governments had been ordered to "conduct concerted and
determined measures not to allow illegal protests that cause security and
social order disturbances."
All protests are technically illegal in Vietnam.
The message appears to represent a shift in
government policy regarding the anti-China protests. On Thursday, Dung sent a
text message calling for heightened patriotism.
Nationalist and dissident groups, which are also
demanding basic democratic reforms that challenge Vietnam's Communist Party,
have called for large protests on Sunday in front of the Chinese Embassy in
Hanoi and in Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam.
The public mood in Vietnam is currently
anti-Beijing, and breaking up the rallies might reinforce dissident claims that
the government is kowtowing to China. In the past, authorities have allowed
small anti-China protests to take place for a limited period, and harassed
journalists covering them.
The public unrest this past week was the most
serious to hit Vietnam in years. Dozens of factories close to Ho Chi Minh City
were trashed following peaceful anti-China protests by workers. In central
Vietnam, a 1,000-strong mob stormed a steel mill, killing one Chinese worker
and wounding hundreds more. Hundreds of Chinese and Taiwanese people have fled
the country by land and air.
There has been no reported violence or major
demonstrations since Thursday.
Earlier this month, Vietnam's government sent a
flotilla to confront Chinese vessels protecting the oil rig, setting off a
tense standoff. The government also has whipped up patriotic fervor via state
media, undoubtedly swelling the numbers of protesters, while also trying to
rally international support for its cause. The streets protests last weekend
were the largest in years in Vietnam.
The government has condemned the violence, which it
said was carried out by "extremists."
In a phone conversation Saturday with his Vietnamese
counterpart, Chinese Public Security Minister Guo Shengkun urged Vietnam to
protect Chinese companies and nationals, according to a statement posted on the
ministry's website. Guo also demanded that Vietnam severely punish those
involved in the violence.
In 2011, Chinese vessels cut a supply cable to a
Vietnamese oil exploration vessel in the South China Sea, angering Vietnam's
government. Vietnam allowed protests for a while before gradually cracking down
on them after they became a forum for anti-government activists.
———
Associated Press writer Didi Tang in Beijing
contributed to this report.
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