(BGF) – Forbes reported that that six Vietnamese craft were injured in a collision on May 4 as China ships intentionally rammed two Vietnamese Sea Guard vessels. The tensions has escalated in the South China Sea as China brought its drilling rig in waters which claimed by both Vietnam and China. Beijing also brought a fleet of about 80 vessels to keep the Vietnamese from stopping the oil rig deployment.
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China’s Vessels Ram Vietnamese Craft In South China Sea
May 7, 2014 | By Gordon G. Chang
(Photo credit: Dantri.com.vn)
On Wednesday, Vietnamese officials announced that one of China’s ships intentionally rammed two of their Sea Guard vessels. The incidents took place on Sunday, the 4th. Six were injured, according to Hanoi.
“Chinese ships, with air support, sought to intimidate Vietnamese vessels,” said Tran Duy Hai of the Foreign Ministry at a news conference. Other officials said six other Vietnamese craft were hit.
The incidents occurred after China National Offshore Oil Corp., better known as CNOOC , had on May 2 towed a deep-water rig, the size of several football fields, to an area that Hanoi claims is within its exclusive economic zone, near the Paracel Islands. Beijing, with its infamous nine-dashed line on its maps, claims about 90% of the international waters of the South China Sea as an internal Chinese lake. The expansive—and largely indefensible—claim overlaps the coastal waters of Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and Indonesia as well as Vietnam.
Beijing brought a fleet of about 80 vessels to keep the Vietnamese from stopping the oil rig, designated HD-981. CNOOC called HD-981 a “strategic weapon”at its launch in 2012.
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