EDITORIAL:
China's ambition on maritime sovereignty is causing tension everywhere, even toward the nations without claiming anything in the South China Sea

I. CHINA AND THE WORLD COMMUNITY

China is causing tensions everywhere right now, not only with the nations which have territorial claims in the South China Sea, such as Indonesia, Malaysia (not to say Vietnam or the Philippines); but also towards the nations which have no territorial claims at all in the South China Sea, such as France or Canada. Why did such a thing happen? That is because China's diplomacy today takes the position of an expansionist nation, 2nd in the world; try to overwhelm other delegations or counterparts to get the advantages for China. The two new incidents which caused embarrassment for the counterparts and the people at large were mentioned by many international media and press, as follows:
(1) On Tuesday evening (June 14, 2016), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) did a thing that hasn't happened before: withdrawal of its joint communique' on rising tensions in the South China Sea after "reported pressure from Beijing" (TIME, June 15, 2016, http://time.com/4369660/asean-south-china-sea-statement/). This happened less than 3 hours after the Communique' was released.
According to TIME, "One senior regional diplomat told TIME that, in the busy minutes after the ASEAN statement went out, Beijing had lobbied regional ministers to make the embarrassing backtrack. Beijing's foreign policymakers, he said, had specifically pressured Laos, which is this year's ASEAN chair, to force the statement's recall. (ASEAN requires consensus among all of its 10 members to issue any statement.)" The report also noted: "By the end of the evening, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had made his own statement refuting the contention that the South China Sea dispute was a sticking point between his country and the regional body as a whole".
The change (specifically China's defense buildup) that took place in the Fiery Cross Reef between May 2014 and May 2016 is massive (Photos by DigitalGlobe/ScapeWare3d/Getty Images, GIF by Andrew Katz for TIME). The world and ASEAN raised their concern and only received a refuting statement by the leader of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is clear that Wang Yi applied an expansionist and superpower approach in dealing with ASEAN and other nations (except U.S.A.) to get advantages for China, without regard to the embarrassment of the counterparts.
(2) On June 1, 2016, Minister Wang met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion in Ottawa and following Wang and Dion's meeting, the two ministers held a joint news conference.
The incident happened when Amanda Connolly of iPolitics raised a question to Dion on behalf of the pool of Canadian reporters. According to Connolly: "Five Canadian media outlets pooled their questions into one for Dion that touched on the disappearances of multiple Hong Kong booksellers believed to be detained in China, the detention and charging of Canadian Kevin Garratt, and China's activities in the South China Sea, with an iPolitics reporter posing the question to Dion." (https://ipolitics.ca/2016/06/01/chinese-foreign-minister-underscores-human-rights-sensitivity-with-outburst/). When a Global Affairs spokesperson invited Chinese media to ask the next question; Wang made an attack on the question to Dion by Connolly (iPolitics) on behalf of the pool of reporters. According to Mike Blanchfield (The Canadian Press): "Wang appeared visibly angry as he delivered the scolding..." at the news conference (https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/06/01/trade-hopes-tension-weigh-on-chinese-foreign-ministers). Following is Wang's response requoted from Connolly:
"I want to respond to the question from this reporter about China. I have to say that your question is full of prejudice against China and arrogance where I have heard that come from and this is totally unacceptable," Wang said. "Other people don't know better than the Chinese people about the human rights conditions in China and if the Chinese people, who are in the best position have say about China's human rights situation. So I would like to suggest to you please don't ask questions in such an irresponsible manner and though we welcome goodwill suggestions, we reject groundless or unwarranted accusations."
(Amanda Connolly: "Chinese Foreign Minister underscores human rights sensitivity with outburst" - Bilateral with Dion overshadowed by verbal attack on iPolitics reporter:
https://ipolitics.ca/2016/06/01/chinese-foreign-minister-underscores-human-rights-sensitivity-with-outburst/)
Wang Yi's reaction in the joint news conference on June 1, 2016 in Ottawa has created a wave of objection and unpleasant feelings in Canada, including in the Vietnamese community (please refer to Tran Gia Hong An's article in Vietnamese in this issue). It is expected that the tension caused by China following the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague's final decision this year on the case of the Philippines v/s China in the South China Sea will be terrible!

II. THE CHARTER 2000 MOVEMENT'S 2016 CONTEST

To find the solutions for such issues as: "DEAD FISH" and "DEAD SEA" in VN, the implementation of the Chengdu Agreement by the Communist Party of China and Communist Party of VN, the new Vietnam - U.S. relations etc.; the Charter 2000 Movement has organized a "Patriotic Poems - Political Essays - and Revolutionary Actions (or Action Plans)" Contest for 2016. The Examining and Judging Committees include: Composer/Prof. Le Mong Nguyen, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Phuc Lien, Poet Cung Tram Tuong, Dr. Nguyen Quang Hiep, Dr. Nguyen Ba Long, and Dr. Luu Nguyen Dat. The Prizes: [$3000 - First Prize, $500: Second Prize, $100: Third Prize (this category includes many Prizes, each $100), Special Prize (depending on the results of fund raising), and Encouraging Prize: a free one-year subscription of the Viet Marketing & Business Report and Viet Opposing Centres Forum. Submission deadline: August 19, 2016(by email). Chief Organizer: Dr. Nguyen Ba Long, 647 296 3133, email: vietmarketing3@gmail.com. Please refer to the original in Vietnamese for more information.