From South China Morning Post
Vietnam is awash with theories that outside forces, possibly with a murky pro-China agenda, orchestrated last week’s deadly anti-China riots.
Damage left by fire and smoke from the night before is seen on the side of a factory building in Binh Duong on May 14, 2014, as anti-China protesters set more than a dozen factories on fire in Vietnam, according to state media, in an escalating backlash against Beijing’s deployment of an oil rig in contested waters. Workers looted goods and attacked offices in a rare outburst of public unrest on May 13 in the authoritarian communist nation, which allowed mass anti-China rallies around Vietnam at the weekend. (Photo: VNExpress/AFP/Getty Images)
Although the identity of the supposed masterminds remains a subject of debate, few seem willing to believe that the violence that claimed four Chinese lives and injured scores of workers erupted spontaneously.
The riots broke out amid public anger at Chinese sovereignty claims in the South China Sea, and targeted hundreds of factories, although only a minority of them were Chinese-owned.
Dinh Hoang Thang, a retired diplomat who has criticised China over the maritime territorial conflict, said the riots should not be viewed as an escalation of anti-China sentiment but rather as an attempt to smear the leadership in Hanoi.
“All these riots were not done by the workers,” he said. “These were outsiders who were wellorganised,” he said.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a reliable source linked to the Hanoi government said he believed the protesters had not intended for their demonstrations to turn deadly.
The source noted numerous witness accounts about a large group of men on motorcycles who had their faces covered with scarves and handkerchiefs.
State media described the men as members of criminal gangs, and Vietnamese police are said to have rounded up many of them over the past week.
One popular scenario in Vietnam is that these provocateurs and some protesting workers were paid by anti-government forces working outside Vietnam.
Read the full story from South China Morning Post.
