Meanwhile, Vietnam’s fishing boats kepttheir normal catching activities about 35-40 nautical miles from therig, demanding their fishing grounds .
In additionto protesting China’s violation of Vietnam’s sovereignty, thefisheries surveillance ships always stood side by side with fishingboats to support and protect them from Chinese vessels.
On the day, China maintained nearly 120 ships, including 40 coastguard vessels, over 30 cargo ships and tugboats, 35-40 fishing boats andfour warships. A Y-8 aircraft was spotted to fly above the rig at aheight of 300-500m.
China’s fishing boats,backed by two coast guard ships, continued to hinder Vietnamesefisheries surveillance and fishing ships from accessing the rig.
They acted more spontaneous, pushing Vietnam’s fishing boats away from the rig about 35-40 nautical miles.
The Chinese vessels organised in group, about 7-8 or 9-11 nauticalmiles from the rig, to aggressively prevent and stand ready to ramagainst and fire water cannons at the Vietnamese ships.
The Vietnamese fisheries surveillance and fishing ships remained safe despite the Chinese aggression.
At the beginning of May 2014, China illegally dispatched the rig aswell as a large fleet of armed vessels, military ships and aircraft toVietnam’s waters and positioned the rig at 15 degrees 29 minutes 58seconds north latitude and 111 degrees 12 minutes 06 seconds eastlongitude. The location is 80 miles deep inside Vietnam ’scontinental shelf and exclusive economic zone.
On May 27, China expanded the rig’s operation by moving it to 15degrees 33 minutes 22 seconds north latitude and 111 degrees 34 minutes36 seconds east longitude, 25 nautical miles from Tri Ton Islandin Vietnam ’s Hoang Sa archipelago and 23 nautical mileseast-northeast from the old location.
On June 3, the oil rig moved yet again to another new position, at 15degrees 33 minutes 36 seconds north latitude and 111 degrees 34 minutes11 seconds east longitude. The new position is still completely withinVietnam ’s continental shelf.-VNA