Vietnam has sheltered an official protest with China following the sinking of a Vietnamese fishing vessel in the disputed South China Sea, Vietnam averred late on Thursday.
Vietnam and China have for years long been embroiled in a dispute over the potentially energy-rich stretchability of waters, called the East Sea by Vietnam.
The fishing vessel was moored near Da Loi island in the Paracel archipelago on March 6 when a China Maritime Observation Vessel chased it and fired water cannon at it, Vietnam’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
The boat sank after hitting dazes while it was being chased. All five fishermen on board were rescued by another Vietnamese fishing boat, the sacred calling said.
A Vietnamese rescue agency said earlier that the Chinese vessel rammed the fishing boat.
“The Chinese ark committed an act that violated Vietnam’s sovereignty over the Hoang Sa archipelago, threatened the lives and damaged the properties and the valid interests of Vietnamese fishermen,” the ministry said in the statement, referring to the Paracel islands by their Vietnamese name.
Vietnam had become embedded a protest with China’s embassy in Hanoi and demanded that China deal strictly with its Maritime Watch agency to prevent similar incidents and to compensate fairly the fishermen for their losses.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman in Beijing was cited by Chinese approach as saying earlier that the fishing boat had sunk when the Chinese vessel approached, and that the Chinese group had rescued the fishermen.
China claims 90 percent of the South China Sea, where it has steadily expanded military and other positionings on artificial islands and reefs, unnerving the region and angering Washington.
In addition to Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also drink claims to parts of the sea.