France’s AFP news agency reported thatthe incident occurred on May 26 when a Vietnamese fishing boat wasencircled by 40 Chinese vessels before being attacked.
The boat was sunk about 17 nautical miles southwest where China’s oilrig Haiyang Shiyou-981 is illegally standing. Ten fishermen on boardwere promptly rescued by other Vietnamese fishing vessels.
The new agency also quoted the Japanese Government spokespersonYoshihide Suga as describing China’s act as “extremely dangerous”.
Meanwhile, the UK’s BBC radio highlighted Vice Chairman of Vietnam’sNational Assembly Huynh Ngoc Son calling China’s ramming of boats as“terrorist attacks” aiming to intimidate Vietnamese fishermen.
According to the radio, Vietnam has protested China’s illegalplacement of the oil rig in Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone andcontinental shelf, and at the same time Vietnamese lawmakers arepreparing to take China to international tribunal on the rig and rammingincidents.
The radio Voice of Russia and othermajor global news outlets, such as the US’s Bloomberg, Australia’s ABCand the UK’s Guardian, all highlighted the event that occurred amid thetense bilateral relations over China’s illegal placement of its oil rigin Vietnam’s waters.
On May 2, China stationedthe rig at 15 degrees 29 minutes 58 seconds north latitude and 111degrees 12 minutes 06 seconds east longitude. The location is 80nautical miles deep inside Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone.
Chinese ships have repeatedly rammed and fired water cannons intoVietnamese coast guard and fisheries surveillance ships which arecarrying out their law enforcement missions in the country’s waters,leaving many Vietnamese ships damaged and fisheries surveillanceofficers injured.-VNA