HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Mobs of rioters in Vietnam torched at least 15 foreign-owned factories and trashed
or looted many more following a large protest by workers against China’s recent placement of an oil rig
in disputed Southeast Asian waters, officials said Wednesday.
The unrest at industrial parks close to Ho Chi Minh City built to attract foreign investors is the most
serious outbreak of public disorder in the tightly controlled country in years.
It points to the dangers for the government as it manages public anger at China while also protesting
itself against the Chinese actions in an area of the South China Sea claimed by Vietnam.
The unrest late Tuesday at a Singapore-run industrial park and others nearby in Binh Duong province
followed protests by up to 20,000 workers. Smaller groups attacked factories they believed were
Chinese-run, but many were Taiwanese or South Korean, the provincial government said in a statement.
On Wednesday morning, groups of men on motorbikes remained on the streets and all the factories in the
area were closed, said a park manager who declined to give his name because of the sensitivity of the
situation. Riot police were stationed around the area but men were still seen carrying looted goods,
said a security guard, who also declined to be identified.
The guard said looters stormed his factory at 1 a.m. and took computers and anything valuable.
“The whole industrial zone looks like it was just smashed by a typhoon,” the guard said.
Another executive said many foreign-owned factories were putting banners on the gates of the factories
saying, “We love Vietnam” and “Hoang Sa, Truong Sa – Vietnam,” using the Vietnamese names for the
Paracel and Spratly islands claimed by both Vietnam and China.
The government said the protests were initially peaceful but were hijacked by “extremists” who incited
people to break into the factories. It said at least 15 factories were set alight and “hundreds” more
vandalized or looted, and that some security guards and unidentified “foreign experts” were assaulted.

China’s Foreign Ministry and its embassy in Hanoi issued warnings to Chinese citizens. The embassy’s
website said it sees no end to attacks by what it called anti-China forces and urged Chinese to take
safety precautions and avoid unnecessary travel.
There are economic stakes for both countries if the standoff and tensions continue.
China is Vietnam’s biggest trading partner, exporting billions of dollars of materials each year for
factories producing goods including clothes, shoes and smartphones as well as cheap consumer goods.
Beijing is also becoming an important investor in the country. In 2013 it invested $2.3 billion, a sharp
rise from the previous year, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
The Singapore government, which operates two industrial parks hit by rioters, called on Vietnam’s
government “to act immediately to restore law and order … before the security situation worsens and
investor confidence is undermined.”
Vietnam reacted angrily after China towed a deep-sea oil rig on May 1 close to the Paracel Islands, which
are controlled by China but claimed by Hanoi. It sent a flotilla of vessels to try to disrupt the oil
rig. Some of the Vietnamese boats clashed with Chinese ships sent to protect the rig.
Over the weekend, the government gave rare permission for street protests against China in cities across
the country. The protests were enthusiastically covered by the state media, unlike the ones on Tuesday,
which appear to have been hit by a media blackout.
The ruling Communist parties in China and Vietnam maintain close links and until May 1 had been trying to
handle tensions over the territorial disputes quietly. Vietnamese authorities are normally highly
nervous about spontaneous public gatherings of any sort. Many of the leaders of the anti-Chinese
protests are also calling for basic democratic reforms, presenting a challenge to one-party rule.
The standoff underlines China’s aggressive pursuit of its territorial claims despite complaints from
smaller nations such as Vietnam and the Philippines, which also claim parts of the waters. The United
States, a treaty ally of the Philippines, has called the latest Chinese action “provocative.”
Last month, the Philippines protested China’s efforts to reclaim land in a disputed reef in the South
China Sea after surveillance aircraft took pictures of dredging by Chinese vessels at Johnson Reef in
the Spratly Islands, which the Philippines says violates a regional non-aggression pact, Foreign
Secretary Albert del Rosario said.
Del Rosario told The Associated Press that it’s not clear what China intends to build on the reef, which
Manila claims as part of its western province of Palawan, but one possibility is an airstrip. Another
official said China could also build an off-shore military base.