Via WiscoDave
Thousands of
Vietnamese set fire to foreign factories and rampaged in industrial
zones in the south of the country in an angry reaction to Chinese oil
drilling in a part of the South
China Sea claimed by Vietnam, officials said on Wednesday.
The brunt of Tuesday's
violence, one of the worst breakdowns in Sino-Vietnamese relations since
the neighbors fought a brief border war in 1979, appears to have been
borne by Taiwanese firms in the zones in Binh Duong and Dong Nai
provinces that were mistaken for Chinese-owned companies.
A police official in Binh Duong province, speaking by telephone, said about 200 people had been arrested.
"We are working on other areas in the province ... We haven't seen any injuries," the official said.
Photographs
posted on social media sites and blogs, purportedly of the aftermath of
the violence, showed blackened shipping containers, smashed windows and
several burnt out vehicles that had been overturned.
Some
Taiwanese firms had spray-painted messages on the road and across their
gates saying "We Support Vietnam" in an effort to distinguish
themselves from Chinese enterprises.
More @ Reuters