Informed Sources

Rising Tensions over the South China Sea

HONG KONG -- China announced plans last month to look for oil in an offshore area in the South China Sea that Vietnam claims ownership of. The dispute could lead to a confrontation because the area may contain as much as 700 million tons of oil, and Vietnam has already leased it to a Mobil-led joint venture. Vietnamese officials say they'd like to find a peaceful solution, but they also say that giving up the region is non-negotiable. A military analyst told Time that the Vietnamese defense budget has recently increased nearly 50%, largely to beef up its air force with an eye toward protecting the reserves. Says the analyst:"The Vietnamese are not ((equipped)) to take on the Chinese. But you can't discount Vietnamese nationalism."

The Clinton Administration Up Against Itself

WASHINGTON -- The Clinton Administration has been pushing for the development of the CLIPPER CHIP, a technology that would enable the government to "wiretap" scrambled digital communications. Now one of the Administration's own federal-budget-office examiners has denied a request for the almost $15 million that would allow government agencies to continue working on the chip. The agencies, backed by Vice President Gore, are appealing.