Sudden shocks have a way of resetting the agenda
It's been more than a month since China’s deep water oil drilling rig Haiyang 981 dropped anchor in Vietnam's exclusive economic zone. Beijing's deployment of the US$1 billion rig and an armada of escort vessels shocked the Vietnamese regime, shattering illusions about its "comprehensive strategic partnership" with China.
Hanoi had hoped that a policy of conciliation would temper China's aggressive pursuit of hegemony in the South China Sea. Its deferential posture papered over a fragile intra-party consensus that Vietnam's dispute with China over maritime sovereignty was a rare cloud in the otherwise sunny sky of fraternal cooperation. Come what may, insisted party conservatives, the comrades to the north would not rock the foundations of a brother socialist regime.
