China denies injuring ‘illegal’ Vietnamese fishing crew
时间：2024-10-03 11:37 来源：RFA 作者：admin 阅读：次
The fishing boat involved in the alleged attack arrives in Sa Ky port, Quang Ngai province on Sept. 30, 2024.
China has denied that its law enforcement authorities adopted a heavy-handed approach to stop Vietnamese fishing boats from operating in disputed waters claimed by both countries in the South China Sea.
Vietnam’s state media reported that Chinese personnel boarded a Vietnamese fishing boat off the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea on Sunday and beat the crew with iron bars, seriously injuring four of them.
They also smashed the fishing equipment and took away the Vietnamese crew’s catch.
China’s foreign ministry, responding to a request for comment from the Reuters news agency, said that Vietnamese fishing boats illegally fished in the waters of the Paracel Islands without permission.
It said that Chinese authorities took measures to stop the boats and that "on-site operations were professional and restrained, and no injuries were found."
Vietnam denounced China’s treatment of the fishing crews operating in what it calls the Hoang Sa islands.
"Vietnam is extremely concerned, indignant and resolutely protests the brutal treatment by Chinese law enforcement forces of Vietnamese fishermen and fishing boats operating in the Hoang Sa archipelago of Vietnam," Vietnamese foreign ministry spokesperson Pham Thu Hang said in a statement.
The ministry delivered a strong protest to the Chinese embassy demanding that China respect Vietnam's sovereignty, investigate the incident and desist from further such actions, Hang said.
Vietnamese media ran several interviews with the captain and crew of the fishing boat QNg 95739 TS from central Quang Ngai province.
The fishermen described a “terrifying attack” by about 40 Chinese personnel on two steel-hulled Chinese ships.
Crewman Huynh Tien Cong told the Tien Phong newspaper that the attackers beat him and other crew members with meter-long steel bars, breaking his arms and legs.
The captain, Nguyen Thanh Bien, was quoted as saying that the attack on Sept. 29 was “the most brutal aggression” he’d witnessed during his 15-year career in the waters off the Paracel archipelago.
Disputed islands
The Paracels comprise about 130 islands and reefs about 400 kilometers (249 miles) off Vietnam’s eastern coast.
According to Captain Bien, the QNg 95739 TS when attacked was sailing near an atoll of the Paracel Islands called Vuladdore Reef, or Yuzhuo Jiao in Chinese.
Vietnamese fishermen consider the area their traditional fishing grounds and their fishing boats have sailed the waters for centuries.
China seized the islands, known in China as Xisha, in 1974 from the government of South Vietnam and has held control over them since. In 2012, Beijing established Sansha City, headquartered in one of the Paracel islands, to administer all the features it claims in the South China Sea.
Details have emerged that the two Chinese ships that took part in the attack on the Vietnamese fishing boat may belong to Sansha City’s comprehensive law enforcement bureau.
Vietnamese fishermen on the QNg 95739 TS said the two attacking vessels bore hull numbers 101 and 301. Ship-tracking data obtained by RFA from the website MarineTraffic show that the bureau’s patrol vessels Sansha Zhifa 101 and 301 were present in the area on Sept. 29, just kilometers away from Vuladdore Reef.
This photo taken on August 18, 2022, shows fishermen pulling in their nets on Vietnam's Ly Son island. the country’s closest island to the disputed Paracel archipelago in the South China Sea. (Nhac Nguyen/AFP)
This photo taken on August 18, 2022, shows fishermen pulling in their nets on Vietnam's Ly Son island. the country’s closest island to the disputed Paracel archipelago in the South China Sea. (Nhac Nguyen/AFP)
Vietnamese fishermen operating in disputed waters in the South China Sea have often complained about harassment by Chinese maritime militia and the coast guard.
In 2020, when a Vietnamese fishing boat was rammed by a Chinese maritime surveillance vessel near the Paracel Islands and sank, Hanoi lodged an official protest.
Vietnamese members of the public raised questions on internet forums about the lack of immediate reaction from their government on this occasion.
China has just appointed a new ambassador to Vietnam, He Wei, who previously served at the foreign ministry's department of boundary and ocean affairs.
Vietnam has adopted a flexible approach to foreign policy known as “bamboo diplomacy” and maintains good relations with the United States, China and Russia, as well as others.
Edited by Mike Firn.
Updated with comment from Vietnam’s foreign ministry.
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