China has showed signs of moving the oil rig Haiyang Shiyou 981 illegally placed in Viet Nam’s waters in a South-easternly direction, according to the Fisheries Surveillance Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The Chinese oil rig and ship on the Vietnamese waters

The same day, around 43 Chinese fishing boats, supported by two coast guard ships, aggressively blocked Vietnamese fishing boats which were operating normally in their traditional fishing grounds in order to create fake scenes so that China can impute a blame to the Vietnamese boats.

Around the illicit oil rig, China still maintained some 119 ships, including 38 coast guard ships, 13 cargo ships, 19 tugboats, 43 fishing boats and six military ships, the Department said.

Chinese ships formed groups and stood ready to ram and fire water cannons at the Vietnamese vessels in order to prevent them from approaching the rig.

Despite the aggressive actions of Chinese ships, Vietnamese fisheries surveillance and fishing vessels kept struggling against and demanded China immediately withdraw the oil rig and all of its ships from Viet Nam’s waters.

VGP News