越南表示有漁船被中國船撞後下沉

Recently the Yahoo News On-line reported the following:

Vietnam says fishing boat rammed and sunk by Chinese ship

Associated Press  HAU DINH, Associated Press Fri, Mar 8 3:15 AM PST

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — A Vietnamese fishing boat capsized after being rammed by a Chinese vessel in the South China Sea's contested Paracel Islands, a Vietnamese official said Friday. China said its boat came upon the fishing vessel after it started sinking and sought help for the crew.

The boat was fishing near Discovery Reef when the incident occurred Wednesday, said the Vietnamese official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press. The Paracel archipelago is claimed by both Vietnam and China, which took control of the islands in 1974.

An online report by the newspaper Tuoi Tre said the five crewmen aboard the Vietnamese boat clung to the bow of their upturned vessel for two hours until they were rescued by another Vietnamese fishing boat.

The official Chinese Communist Party newspaper reported that a Chinese government vessel received a distress call from a Vietnamese fishing boat and sailed to the area, where it found the boat partly sunk. The online report, quoting Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang, said the Chinese ship immediately contacted China's maritime search and rescue center to dispatch a rescue vessel and the five Vietnamese fishermen were rescued.

Lu said nothing about a vessel, Chinese or otherwise, ramming the Vietnamese ship other than to cite the original Vietnamese report. He also didn't specifically say that the Chinese ship rescued the fishermen.

China's territorial claims extend far into the South China Sea, and it maintains a robust maritime presence that includes driving away non-Chinese fishing boats. Its coast guard performs most such actions, assisted by ships of the maritime militia — ostensibly civilian fishing boats that can swiftly be mobilized. There have been several previously reported incidents of Vietnamese fishing boats being attacked by Chinese vessels.

China has also built up reefs and islands, transforming them into military installations to further its claim to the disputed waterway and its resources, a major point of regional tension. A standoff between the countries in 2014 after China parked an oil rig near the Paracel Islands sparked deadly riots in Vietnam.

(Associated Press writer Christopher Bodeen in Beijing contributed to this story)

My Chinese translation

越南河內（AP） - 越南官員周五表示，一艘越南漁船在南中國海有爭議的西沙群島被中國船隻撞後傾覆。中國說當船開始下沉及船員尋求幫助時他們来到這渔船。

這名越南官員說，由於沒有授權向新聞界發表講話，這名越南官員不願透露姓名。越南和中國都聲稱西沙群島並在1974年控制了這些島嶼。

青年報 (Tuoi Tre) 的在線版報導稱，越南船上的五名船員緊緊抓住他們上翹船隻的船頭兩小時，直到他們被另一艘越南漁船救起。

官方的中國共產黨報紙報導說，一艘中國政府船隻接到一艘越南漁船的遇險呼叫並航行到該地區，在那裡發現該船部分沉沒。這篇網上報導援引中國外交部發言人陸慷的話說，這艘中國船隻立即聯繫中國海上搜救中心派遣一艘救援船，五名越南漁民獲救。

除了引用越南的原本报告外，陸先生沒有提及中國或其他船隻撞擊越南船隻的事情。他也沒有具體說中國船隻救出了漁民。

中國的領土主張遠遠延伸到南中國海，並保持在這海域作出強勢出現，包括趕走非中國漁船。其海岸警衛隊在海上民兵的船隻協助下執行大多數此趕走類行動 - 他們明顯地是可以迅速動員起來的民用漁船。此前已有幾次越南漁船被中國船隻襲擊事件。

中國還建立了珊瑚礁和島嶼，將它們轉變為軍事設施，以進一步宣稱擁有有爭議的水道及其資源，這是地區緊張局勢的一個重點。因中國在西沙群島附近停放石油鑽井平台後所引發的2014年两國對峙, 曾引起越南發生致命騷亂。

My comments

              On and off, Vietnam reported to the world that its fishing boats were rammed by Chinese vessels in the South China Sea's contested Paracel Islands. Obviously, China is having territorial disputes on sea respectively with Japan, the Philippines, and Vietnam concurrently. I hope they can solve the disagreement by peaceful means eventually.