
Image from a Vietnam Coast Guard ship on May 13, 2014 shows a covered gun-machine on the deck during a patrol near China’s oil drilling rig in disputed waters in the South China Sea
Vietnam said on Wednesday a Chinese oil rig at the centre of an increasingly bitter territorial dispute appeared to be on the move again, as China denied Vietnamese accusations that it had sent warships to the scene.
The rig’s deployment triggered anti-Chinese riots in Vietnam last month that killed at least four workers.
Scores of Vietnamese and Chinese ships, including coastguard vessels, have squared off around the rig despite a series of collisions after the platform was towed to the area in early May.
In a statement, Vietnam’s Directorate of Fisheries said the rig had shown signs of moving towards the east and southeast.
China had 119 vessels in the rig’s operating area, it added, including six naval ships and four circling military aircraft.
However, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying dismissed as “completely incorrect” the accusations that China had sent six warships, adding that the rig operations were commercial in nature.
“Because Vietnam keeps forcefully and illegally carrying out interference, we have sent official Chinese government ships to guarantee security on the scene, but we have not sent military ships,” she told a daily news briefing.
The Haiyang Shiyou 981 rig is drilling between the Paracel islands, which China occupies, and the Vietnamese coast. Vietnam has said the rig is in its 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone and on its continental shelf.
China says it is operating within its waters.
China claims about 90 percent of the South China Sea, but parts of the potentially energy-rich waters are also subject to claims by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.
Hua said Vietnam had sent a large number of armed ships to interfere in the rig’s operations, though she would not confirm whether the rig had moved.
She added that rig operations, which started on May 2, are expected to go on until the middle of August.
“We hope that it can be completed smoothly and safely,” she said, accusing Vietnam of having stirred up last month’s violence against foreign companies.
“Vietnam’s government incited certain domestic lawbreaking elements to smash up and burn foreign companies, including Chinese ones…There has still been no compensation for this,” Hua said.
In a separate statement, China‘s defence ministry accused the United States of stirring up regional tension, especially through joint military exercises and by sending “wrong messages” on territorial disputes.
“This has made regional peace and stability even more chaotic,” it said, in comments responding to a Pentagon report last week on China‘s military spending and ambitions that Beijing has already condemned.
The United States was the real threat, it added, pointing to U.S. cyber-warfare and missile defence capabilities and the fact that U.S. defence spending far exceeded China‘s.
Source: World Bulletin – Vietnam says China moving rig, sending warshipsRelated articles
- China takes dispute with Vietnam to UN (chinadailymail.com)
- Acts of war? China escalates attacks against Vietnam (chinadailymail.com)
- Chinese warships aim uncovered guns at Vietnamese ships in South China Sea (chinadailymail.com)
- Large number of Chinese troops seen heading for China-Vietnam border (chinadailymail.com)
- Vietnam boat sinks after collision with Chinese vessel (chinadailymail.com)
- South Korea Gives Philippines Warship to Monitor China (ibtimes.co.uk)
- China must immediately withdraw oil rig: Vietnam’s Defense Minister (seeker401.wordpress.com)
- China Is Angry at Vietnam and the Philippines’ Volleyball Diplomacy (usnews.com)
- Vietnam’s strategic outlook after Haiyang 981 (eastasiaforum.org)
- China Accuses Vietnam of Ramming Ships to Stop Rig (sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com)
Categories: Defence & Aerospace
China will keep taunting its smaller neighbors on one side, while pronouncing that it despise trouble on the other. It’s apparent that the Chinese government derives pleasure and some kind of self esteem from the attention it gets from the world.
Perhaps it’s high time to isolate China – from trade and even diplomatic relations. A progressive China, living all alone with no ties whatsoever from the rest of the world will soon turn impotent and faceless. This might come as a bitter punishment for the Chinese people but on the other hand, this might be the dope these Chinese government officials need to bring them back to reality.
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