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Vietnam accuses Chinese ships of gun threats
by Staff Writers
Hanoi (AFP) May 29, 2014


Visiting Sen. Ben Cardin says China is stoking tensions over oil rig
Hanoi, Vietnam (UPI) May 29, 2013 - China should work to calm the row over a drilling rig deployed in waters disputed by Vietnam rather than acting provocatively, a visiting U.S. senator said.

The U.S. government this week expressed concern on word a Vietnamese boat capsized this week after it was allegedly rammed by a Chinese vessel near a Chinese oil rig deployed in disputed waters.

The row erupted in early May when China National Offshore Oil Co. sent a rig to an area about 120 miles off the coast of Vietnam.

Visiting U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Chinese action in the region was unacceptable.

"We think the situation is very tense and we have urged China to take actions to de-escalate rather than to provoke through the presence of their military vessels, and their interference with maritime activities," he said during a Wednesday press conference in Hanoi.

Cardin said a resolution on the issue is expected soon on the Senate floor. He reiterated the U.S. position that, while it has no stance on territorial claims, aggression is no way to settle the issue.

Vietnamese officials have said they have a right to defend their national interests. Beijing says it's operating within its territorial waters and has called on Vietnam to stop interfering with its legitimate work in the region.

Vietnam on Thursday accused Chinese war ships of pointing their weapons at Vietnamese vessels during an escalating standoff near an oil rig in contested waters.

The tense confrontation came as China moved its deep-sea rig to a new location earlier this week that Hanoi considers is still within its territory.

"When we approached (the Chinese warships guarding the rig) they uncovered their guns, turned them and pointed them at the Vietnamese vessels," Ha Le, deputy chief of Vietnam's Fisheries Surveillance Department, told AFP.

Japanese media meanwhile reported a standoff during which at least eight Chinese ships surrounded and trained their machine guns on a Vietnamese coastguard boat, just six kilometres (around four miles) from the rig.

One Chinese ship kept a machine gun pointed on the Vietnamese vessel as it came within just 200 metres (220 yards), according to a Yomiuri Shimbun journalist at the scene.

The report said that at least 100 Chinese ships had been in the area as Chinese jets flew overhead.

Vietnamese and Chinese vessels have engaged in increasingly tense skirmishes over the rig in the South China Sea that have triggered international alarm.

On Tuesday, Vietnam accused a Chinese ship of ramming and sinking one of its fishing boats -- the first ship reported sunk since the dispute flared in early May.

The confrontations have included reported rammings and the use of water cannon. Vietnam says dozens of people have been injured in the clashes.

"They use water cannons every day, whenever we approach their boats," Le said.

Japan and the Philippines also have tense disputes at sea with China.

Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said Thursday that skirmishes were inevitable but "we must be restrained," according to state media.

He said at least 30 Vietnamese ships had been damaged by Chinese vessels.

Beijing, which claims nearly all of the South China Sea, blames Vietnam for the standoff, saying that the rig is in its own waters.

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Obama warns against 'aggression' in South China Sea
West Point, United States (AFP) May 28, 2014
President Barack Obama warned Wednesday that the United States was ready to respond to China's "aggression" toward its neighbors at sea but said Washington should lead by example by ratifying a key treaty. In a wide-ranging speech on foreign policy to US military cadets at West Point, Obama said that the United States should shun isolationism and that its military must be prepared for crises ... read more


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