A Chinese ship (R) uses water cannon on a Vietnamese Sea Guard ship on the South China Sea near the Paracels islands, in this handout photo taken on May 5, 2014 and released by the Vietnamese Marine

The following is translated from Chinese media. The opinions expressed are those of the authors, and not necessarily those of China Daily Mail:

A Vietnamese fishery surveillance ship was surrounded by five Chinese official ships and attacked by water canon. A Chinese ship rammed the sides of the Vietnamese ship and damaged it.

On June 23, Vietnamese ships claimed they continued to enforce Vietnamese law around Chinese oil rig no. 981. Vietnamese fishery surveillance ship no. KN-951 was surrounded and blocked by Chinese tugboats nos 284 and 285, marine surveillance ship no. 11 and other ships.

Those ships sailed close to the Vietnamese ship while China’s new tugboat no. 285 rammed the Vietnamese ship and damaged its railing and some equipment and deformed both sides of the ship.

Fortunately no one has been seriously injured.

According to Vietnamese authority, the ship’s carbon dioxide room and a life boat were destroyed.

The drilling site is an area where Vietnamese fishing boats are used to fish. There are 38 Chinese fishing boats there blocking Vietnamese fishing boats with the support Chinese Coast Guard Ships Nos. 46102 and 42103.

Today, there are about 121 Chinese ships around the drilling rig including 44 law enforcement ships, 15 cargo ships, 9 tugboats, 38 fishing boats and 5 warships.

Contributor’s note: I have said in my previous post that due to recession, there is overcapacity in China’s shipbuilding industry. The Chinese government has ordered quite a few coast guard ships, the largest of which has a displacement of 10,000 tons. It has not only saved quite a few shipyards from bankruptcy but also enabled China to make preparations for confrontation with Vietnam and the Philippines.

According to Chinese media, Japan has promised to give Vietnam ten coast guard ships, but compared with China, its shipbuilding capacity and availability of funds are insignificant. Readers should be aware that China is well prepared for the confrontation and wants to provoke Vietnam to fire the first shot when Vietnam reaches the limit of its patience. Then China will have the excuse to annihilate the Vietnamese navy and take back from Vietnam the islands and reefs China claims as its territories.

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Categories: Defence & Aerospace

Tags: China, Defence, Media, Military, Paracel Island, Philippines, Politics, Propaganda, South China Sea, Vietnam