Vietnam and China trade accusations over sinking of Vietnamese fishing boat

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/27/vietnam-china-accusations-sinking-fishing-boat

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Hanoi has accused Chinese boats of ramming and sinking a Vietnamese fishing vessel, while Beijing hit back by blaming the Vietnamese craft, amid growing friction in the South China Sea.

There have been a spate of collisions between the two nations' ships – until now without loss of any vessels – after a long-running territorial row reignited earlier this month when China towed an oil rig into disputed waters, sparking mob violence in Vietnam that led to several deaths.

"A Vietnamese boat from the central city of Da Nang was deliberately encircled by 40 fishing vessels from China before it was attacked by a Chinese ship," the head of the coastguard, Nguyen Quang Dam, told Reuters by telephone on Tuesday.

Other Vietnamese fishing boats rescued the ten crew members in the incident the previous day, officials said.

But China's state news agency Xinhua said the vessel overturned after "harassing and colliding with" a Chinese vessel.

China's foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang blamed Vietnam for "forcefully disrupting China's normal operations and its dangerous actions on the seas", urging it to halt "disruptive and damaging" activities.

Experts have warned such incidents could spiral out of control, and the latest incident echoed clashes earlier this month when Vietnam issued video footage showing Chinese boats crashing into and firing water cannons at vessels trying to stop the drilling platform being put into place, while China accused Vietnamese ships of targeting their craft. In Vietnam, angry protestors then attacked and set fire to mostly Taiwanese factories they wrongly believed were run by mainland Chinese firms, killing at least four workers.

China claims almost all of the South China Sea, which boasts rich energy resources. The complex, overlapping disputes also involve the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

Monday's incident took place 17 nautical miles from the rig, owned by the state-run China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) Group, which is located off the Paracel or Xisha islands. It is roughly 150 miles (240km) off the Vietnamese coast and 206 miles (330km) from China's southern Hainan island.

Ian Storey, of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, said there had been previous violent clashes such as the incident in which Chinese naval officers shot dead Vietnamese citizens in the Gulf of Tonkin in 2005, saying they were defending Chinese fishermen.

But he added: "It does underscore how dangerous the situation is.

"I don't think either side wants to push this into a military confrontation: China because of the reputational costs, and Vietnam because they know the Chinese military is much more powerful. That said, this is precisely the kind of incident that could trigger an escalation of the dispute which might be difficult to contain."

Storey said China had indicated the rig would be in place until August, and would presumably withdraw it then – not least because of the high cost of the operation.

"This is not a commercial operation; they are sending a political statement [and] a very costly statement; I've seen estimates that it costs $300,000 a day to keep the oil rig on site, plus the costs of other ships," he said.

"In the meantime, Vietnam is seriously looking at a legal challenge to the oil rig's presence."

The Philippines has already launched a legal case against China. Storey said that if Vietnam did so, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea could issue a preliminary ruling that the rig should cease operation in a matter of weeks.

But he added: "My guess is that China would simply ignore it and say ITLOS has no jurisdiction."

He said China was sending a message it had a right to resources and was prepared to share them, but that Vietnam and the Philippines should desist from unilaterally developing them.

"The other claimants are not prepared to do that, because under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea they have a strong claim to exclusive rights. Why share something that belongs to you already?"

Hong Nong, from China's National Institute for South China Sea Studies, said Vietnam had overreacted.

"Among the six parties to the dispute, China is the only one to have had no oil rig in the South China Sea. China has shown self-restraint," he said.

"In the past 10 years, China has been working on the preparation of an oil rig. Vietnam should have known that. They kept silent, and accepted it."

Hong said that the tensions were unlikely to lead to military conflict, adding: "The best way to resolve the problem is for the two countries to go back to the negotiation table, avoid the maritime collisions, and especially avoid casualties."