Chinese ships intentionally ramming Vietnamese vessels in battle over ocean oil rig
HANOI, Vietnam — Chinese ships are ramming and spraying water cannons at Vietnamese vessels trying to stop Beijing from setting up an oil rig in the South China Sea, according to Vietnamese officials and video evidence Wednesday, a dangerous escalation of tensions in disputed waters considered a global flashpoint.
With neither side showing any sign of stepping down, the standoff raises the possibility that more serious clashes could break out. Vietnam said several boats have been damaged and six people on the vessels have been injured by broken glass.
Vietnam, which has no hope of standing up to China militarily, said it wants a peaceful solution and — unlike China — hadn’t sent any navy ships to areas close to the $1 billion deep sea rig. But a top official warned that “all restraint had a limit.”
“Our maritime police and fishing protection forces have practised extreme restraint, we will continue to hold on there,” Ngo Ngoc Thu, vice commander of Vietnam’s coast guard, told a specially arranged news conference in Hanoi. “But if [the Chinese ships] continue to ram into us, we will respond with similar self-defence.”
The disruptive activities by the Vietnamese side are in violation of China’s sovereign rights
China’s stationing of the oil rig, which was accompanied by a flotilla of military and civilian ships, on May 1 has been seen as one of its most provocative steps in a gradual campaign of asserting its sovereignty in the South China Sea, parts of which are also claimed by Vietnam, the Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations.
Vietnam immediately dispatched marine police and fishery protection vessels to the area, but they were harassed as they approached, Thu said.
