Vietnam yesterday said that a Chinese oil rig at the center of an bitter territorial dispute appeared to be on the move again, as Beijing denied Hanoi’s 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 and damaged hundreds of Taiwanese, Japanese and South Korean factories mistaken for China-owned enterprises.
Scores of Vietnamese and Chinese ships, including coast guard vessels, have squared off around the rig since it was towed close to the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島) early last month. The South China Sea island chain is claimed by Taiwan, Vietnam and China.
Photo: EPA
In a statement, the Vietnamese Directorate of Fisheries said the rig had shown signs of moving to the east and southeast. China has 119 vessels in the rig’s operating area, it added, including six naval ships and four circling military aircraft.
However, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) dismissed as “completely incorrect” the accusations that Beijing had sent six warships to the site, adding that the rig operations were commercial.
“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 Paracels, which China occupies, and the Vietnamese coast. Hanoi has said the rig is in its exclusive economic zone and on its continental shelf, while China says it is operating within its waters.
Hua said Vietnam had sent a large number of armed ships to interfere in the rig’s operations, but would not confirm if the rig moved.
She said rig operations, which started on May 2, are expected to go on until the middle of August.
Hua then accused Hanoi of having stirred up last month’s anti-China protests saying: “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.”
Separately, the Chinese Ministry of Defense accused the US of stirring up regional tensions by sending “wrong messages” on territorial disputes, in particular through the holding of joint military exercises.
“This has made regional peace and stability even more chaotic,” it said in response to a Pentagon report last week on China’s military spending and ambitions.
The defense ministry said the US is the real threat, pointing to US cyber-warfare and missile defense capabilities, and defense spending far exceeding that of China’s.
In another territorial flareup, Japan yesterday said Chinese fighter jets flew “abnormally close” to Japanese military aircraft in the East China Sea, Japanese Minister of Defense Itsunori Onodera said.
The Chinese Su-27s “flew so recklessly that the Self-Defense Forces pilot felt in danger,” Onodera told visiting Australian Minister of Defense David Johnston.
China’s defense ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was