China disputes Vietnam claim of boat attack

Posted to the Manila Standard Today (Sep 11): China disputes Vietnam claim of boat attack



An officer on the Vietnamese Coast Guard vessel
No. 8003 looks on as it is flanked by a Chinese
Coast Guard ship, right, in disputed waters claimed
by both China and Vietnam west of the Paracel
islands on May 14, 2014.  BLOOMBERG

Vietnam should prevent illegal fishing in Chinese waters, China’s foreign ministry said, dismissing claims its boats attacked Vietnamese fishermen near disputed islands in the South China Sea.

Vietnam’s foreign ministry said Sept. 9 that it demanded compensation after Chinese vessels last month rammed and robbed three fishing vessels off the Paracel Islands, known as the Xisha Islands in Chinese. Vietnam and China both claim the islands and surrounding waters.

The accusation is “far from the truth,” Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for China’s foreign ministry, said yesterday at a briefing. A Vietnamese vessel on Aug. 15 illegally entered waters off the islands to blow up fish and China’s law enforcement authority boarded the ship and confiscated explosives, she said.

Tensions between the neighbors whose coasts abut the resource-rich South China Sea remain elevated even after China removed an oil exploration rig from the waters on July 15. China, which claims a large part of the South China Sea under a 1940s-era map, has stepped up its assertions to the Paracel Islands and the more southerly Spratly Islands, where it is building artificial islands in areas contested by the Philippines.

“China urges the Vietnamese side to take concrete actions to strengthen education and management of Vietnamese fishermen and stop the illegal fishing activities in waters off China’s Xisha Islands,” Hua said. China introduced fishing rules in January requiring foreign vessels to seek permission before entering waters off its southern coast.

Last week Vietnam said that the opening of a cruise ship route from Hainan to the Paracels violated its sovereignty.

http://manilastandardtoday.com/2014/09/11/china-disputes-vietnam-claim-of-boat-attack/