AKIPRESS.COM - Anti-China rallies sparked by the placement of an oil rig in waters near Vietnam damaged factories owned by Taiwanese companies, with some plants closing as Vietnam detained hundreds of protesters.

Vietnam’s government has called for the removal of the Chinese exploration rig from waters near the contested Paracel Islands, with Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung describing China’s move as “extremely dangerous," Bloomberg reported. 

Taiwanese companies with factories in Vietnam halted operations, with some citing damage to plants from the protests. One person was slightly injured and more than 200 Taiwanese people took refuge at a hotel in the southern province of Binh Duong, according to Chen Bor-show, director general of the Taipei Economic and Culture Office in Ho Chi Minh City.

“The workers are not choosing from which country the factory belongs,” said Bob Hsu, general manager of Taiwan’s Great Super Enterprise Ltd., which has closed its garment factories in the southern province of Dong Nai. Protesters looking at company names “are just trying to find a Chinese word. It includes Korean, Japanese factories.”

“I asked the local police to protect my workers,” Hsu said today in Ho Chi Minh City. “We moved staff outside. I am worried, so we are destroying any Chinese words in the logo.”