China's bellicose nature has incensed Vietnam and could destabilize the region. Neither country has reached an agreement on the oil rig situation, increasing protests in Vietnam and backlash against Chinese nationals and companies in the South East Asian country.

On May 1, China moved a mobile oil-drilling rig into Vietnam's exclusive economic zone. According to Reuters, China has laid claims to almost the entire South China Sea, increasing tension with the other nations in the region with similar claims. Aside from the Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan, Brunei and Malaysia, Vietnam also claims a part of the sea, and China's actions are viewed as an affront to their sovereignty.

The Washington Post reported China stationed the rig 70 miles within Vietnam's 200-mile exclusive economic zone. The U.N. Convention on Law of the Sea grants this territory to Vietnam, but China believes to be entitled to a huge swath of the sea.

Vietnam has asked China to remove the rig and claims 80 ships are protecting it. Though unconfirmed, Vietnamese officials did confirm that coast guard ships send to investigate were rammed and shot at with water cannon by the Chinese ships. China, on the other hand, claims Vietnam is interfering with the rig's operation.

However, the stalemate between the two nations has caused turmoil within Vietnam. Protests have disrupted major cities in Vietnam as well as its economy, according to USA Today. The deadly protests have claimed the lives of two Chinese workers, and thousands more are fleeing the nation.

Vietnamese security forces, following the prime ministers orders, have halted the protests. USA Today reported that 3,000 Chinese nationalists have fled the nation, and China has sent five ships to evacuate the rest. The Vietnamese government has arrested about a thousand protestors. Chinese companies in Vietnam have been targeted in the protests as well as Chinese workers in the country; however, Vietnamese security official Lt. Gen. Hoang Kong Tu has vowed to protect foreigners in the nation.

According to USA Today, both sides claim to be provoked by the other; however, China lays blame on the United States overall. The stand off, nonetheless, will not end until one of the nations act first.

"As long as the oil rig is not withdrawn from Vietnam's continental shelf, the Vietnamese people will continue to demonstrate, and their emotions will continue to be angry and sensitive," Le Dang Doanh, a Vietnamese economist and former government adviser in Hanoi, said Friday. "Vietnamese people want to keep peace, but it would be a miscalculation to take that as weakness."