Chinese fleet grows to 130 vessels as attacks continue against Vietnamese ships

 

Photo: Thanh Nien

PHNOM PENH (The Cambodia Herald) -- A Chinese fleet guarding an oil rig in Vietnamese waters grew to 130 vessels Saturday as it continued launching attacks on Vietnamese ships, Thanh Nien reported.

The report said the fleet added 27 ships in two days including four military vessels.

"Two Chinese aircraft have maintained patrols over Vietnamese law enforcement ships as they continue to attempt to approach the Haiyang Shiyou 981 oil rig and protect local fishing boats," the Vietnamese newspaper said.

"Two fishing Vietnamese fishing boats were partially damaged in attacks on Friday," it said, adding that several Vietnamese fishery surveillance ships were also "rammed and sprayed with water cannons" about seven nautical miles from the rig. The attacks reportedly rendered one ship's engine and communication systems inoperable.

Vu Duc Tao, chief of Vietnam's fishing surveillance fleet, said the fleet had five ships each weighing 450 tons while the Chinese vessels weigh at least 2,000 tons each.

Nguyen The Hung Dung, on the fishery surveillance ship KN-767, was quoted as saying that the Chinese boats were “dangerous” because they were equipped with iron battering rams capable of boring a hole in the side of a boat.

“If they ram our ships, and we can't avoid then, our ships will break and sink,” he reportedly said.

A fisheries surveillance officer was a quoted as saying that Chinese aircraft were flying over the Vietnamese vessels for several hours every evening with the aim of "pinpointing their locations to direct missiles at them."