But it is worth recalling that China used lethal force to expel Vietnamese from the Paracel Islands in 1974 and 1988. And China prevailed upon the Cambodian host of this year’s ASEAN summit to block a final communiqué that would have called for a code of conduct in the South China Sea – the first time in the ten-member association’s four-decade history that it failed to issue a communiqué.
但值得一提的是中国曾在1974年和1988年两次以致命武力驱走了西沙群岛的越南人。中国还在今年柬埔寨召开的东盟峰会上成功阻止了呼吁制定南海行为准则的最后公报——这是东盟十成员国四十年历史上首次未能发表公报。