August 4:
Authorities in Guangzhou have announced that recent gatherings supporting the preservation of Cantonese language are illegal. Supporters of the pro-Cantonese campaign, which seems to have come from nowhere and lacks well-defined objectives, took to the streets two Sundays in a row. Pro-Cantonese activists call their campaign "cultural" and claim their call for protecting the dialect is not political. They are opposed to a report issued by Guangzhou’s People's Political Consultative Conference's entitled "Proposal that Guangzhou Television Increase Putonghua [Mandarin] Airtime," claiming it is aimed at “promoting putonghua and handicapping Cantonese.” Deputy Secretary of the Guangzhou Party Committee, Su Zhijie, said any allegations about marginalizing Cantonese are unfounded. By calling the demonstrations illegal and ordering the state media to downplay the movement, the authorities have signaled a switch to a tougher line, Hong Kong’s Ming Pao reports in both its Chinese and English language versions.
August 5:
Hanoi has welcomed Google Maps’ decision to fix errors that placed thousands of square miles of Vietnam’s territory inside China. "Fixing the error not only helps Vietnam but also increases Google's prestige as the company supplies correct information," said Dang Hung Vo, Vietnam’s deputy minister of Natural Resources and Environment. One error displayed a borderline that did not properly trace the course of a river and as a result had placed part of Lao Cai inside China. Google Maps borderline was also changed in Dien Bien province, while in Quang Ninh it had placed Mong Cai inside China. Although Google Maps’ determinations carry no legal weight, in March, Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs requested the changes. That same month, the National Geographic Society altered its maps of the South China Sea after a Vietnamese group protested its designation of the Paracel Islands as China’s territory, Deutsche Presse- Agentur reports.
[Editor’s Note: Vietnam and China have had longstanding disputes over their border, and the two fought a brief but bloody border war in 1979. The two countries signed a Land Border Treaty in 1999 and an agreement on border management last November. Sovereignty over the Paracels is disputed between Vietnam and China. China seized the islands from the South Vietnam in 1974.]
August 8:
The war of words between China and Vietnam continues to heat up as both countries seek to establish sovereignty over portions of the South China Sea. On August 5, the country’s foreign ministry condemned “Chinese seismic studies” approximately 100 nautical miles from Ly Son island, Vietnam’s official state-run VNA news agency reports. "Vietnam demands that China immediately cease activities that violate Vietnam's sovereignty and its sovereign rights in the South China Sea,” said a Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesperson. In response, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson claimed that “China has undisputable sovereignty over the Paracel archipelago and the adjacent waters,” the official China Daily reports. Hanoi’s latest high-profile attempt to put public pressure on Beijing comes amid its improving relations with Washington. A U.S. nuclear aircraft carrier cruised in waters off Vietnam on August 8th tacitly challenging China's sovereignty over the Parcels. Last month, Secretary of State Clinton said the U.S. supported international mechanisms to solve the South China Sea dispute. China prefers to negotiate bilaterally.
August 9:
China's Navy has tested its new high-speed stealth vessel, the DaoDanTing Type 022, during a military drill last month. Beijing has 80 of the ships, which are capable of carrying eight missiles with a maximum range of 200 km and traveling at 36 knots per hour while avoiding radar and infrared detection. Beijing has spared no expense to acquire stealth technology. The airframe design for the B-2 stealth bomber was leaked to China in 2005 and Chinese hackers obtained classified documents related to the F-35 when they attacked the Pentagon server in April last year. A RAND Corporation report claims that by 2020 U.S. air power in the Pacific would be insufficient to thwart a mainland attack on Taiwan. American stealth fighters would be unable to evade China's advanced radars, Korea’s Chosan Ilbo reports.