HANOI — Authorities in Vietnam on Thursday threatened to crack down on anti-China protests in Hanoi after a series of unprecedented demonstrations in the capital.
"For those who deliberately disobey, trying to illegally gather causing public disorder... authorities can apply necessary measures," said the notice published in Hanoi Moi, a mouthpiece for the ruling Communist Party.
The demonstrations over a territorial dispute in the tense South China Sea have occurred almost every Sunday since early June and attracted up to 300 peaceful marchers -- including prominent intellectuals.
Two protests in July were forcibly dispersed by police after talks between Hanoi and Beijing, but subsequent rallies have been allowed to go ahead.
Overtly political demonstrations are rare in authoritarian Vietnam but analysts said the gatherings initially served Hanoi's purpose in expressing displeasure with Beijing.
The unsigned notice from the Hanoi authorities said more recent gatherings had been abused by "anti-state forces".
It added: "Their conspiracy and intention has been to disrupt the great national unity, instigating national hatred, separating relations between Vietnam and China," and disrupting political stability.
Vietnam and China have a longstanding dispute over sovereignty of the potentially oil-rich Paracel and Spratly island groups, which straddle vital commercial shipping lanes in the South China Sea.
Protests began after tensions flared in May when Vietnam said Chinese marine surveillance vessels cut the exploration cables of an oil survey ship inside the country's exclusive economic zone.
Vietnamese bitterly recall 1,000 years of Chinese occupation and, more recently, a 1979 border war. More than 70 Vietnamese sailors were killed in 1988 when the two sides battled off the Spratlys.
Some activists speculated the government may fear political protests inspired by this year's uprisings against authoritarianism in North Africa and the Middle East.
The government also has to balance its relationship with China by not overly-offending its giant communist neighbour while avoiding the appearance of weakness before its own people, analysts say.
Nguyen Xuan Dien, whose blog has become a rallying point for the protesters, told AFP the call to end demonstrations has no legal validity.
"It prevents people's rights to demonstration written in the constitution," he said, declining to say what the protesters will do next.
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