(BGF) – Vietnam Communist Party still want to control the country’s dissident movement against China as it shows distrust  the public gatherings of any sort, much less ones that risk posing a threat to public order. The New Zealand Herald Nevertheless said that some patriot bloggers shared their thought that it is time for the Communist Party of Vietnam to make a reform, not to rely on China as an economic partner anymore.

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Looming street protests a test for Vietnam

(Photo Credit : the Associated Press)

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) – Vietnamese anger toward China is running at its highest level in years after Beijing deployed an oil rig in disputed waters. That’s posing a tricky question for Vietnam’s leaders: To what extent should they allow public protests that could morph into those against their own authoritarian rule?

At one level, the ruling Communist Party would like to harness the anger on the street to amplify its own indignation against China and garner international sympathy as naval ships from both countries engage in a tense standoff near the rig off the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea.

But Vietnam’s government instinctively distrusts public gatherings of any sort, much less ones that risk posing a threat to public order. And they also know that members of the country’s dissident movement are firmly embedded inside the anti-China one, and have used the issue to mobilize support in the past.

On Saturday, around 100 people protested outside the Chinese Consulate in the country’s commercial capital, Ho Chi Minh City, watched on by a large contingent of security officers. Dissident groups have called for larger demonstrations on Sunday in Ho Chi Minh City and in Hanoi, the capital.

The two Asian nations have a history of conflict going back 1,000 years, and the streets of Vietnam’s cities are named after heroes in those fights.

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