China demands fishing boat release
Print Edition
CHINA yesterday demanded the Philippines release a Chinese fishing boat and its crew seized in the South China Sea in the latest flare-up in the oil and gas-rich waters.
Chief Superintendent Noel Vargas of the Philippine National Police Maritime Group said a maritime police patrol apprehended the vessel around 7am on Tuesday off Half Moon Shoal in the Nansha Islands in the South China Sea.
The boat has 11 crew and police found about 350 turtles in the vessel, some already dead, a police report said, adding that a Philippine boat and crew was also seized. It was found to have 70 turtles on board. Maritime police were towing the boats to Puerto Princesa town on the island of Palawan where appropriate charges would be filed against them, Vargas said.
China said the Philippines had to immediately release the boat and the fishermen.
“China’s Foreign Ministry and China’s ambassador to the Philippines have made representations to the Philippines side, demanding that it provide a rational explanation and immediately release the people and the vessel,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily news briefing in Beijing. “We once again warn the Philippines not to take any provocative actions,” she said, stressing China’s sovereignty over the Nansha Islands.
While there are frequent stand-offs between fishermen and the various claimant states in the South China Sea, the actual detention of Chinese fishermen or the seizure of a boat is rare.
Contact was lost with the 11 fishermen after they were intercepted by armed men, Xinhua news agency reported.
They were on board fishing boat Qiongqionghai 09063, which was intercepted by an unidentified armed vessel about 10am in waters off Half Moon Shoal, Xinhua said, citing a fishing association in Qionghai on China’s southern island province of Hainan.
“Several armed men forced themselves onto the boat and fired four or five shots in the air. They then took control of the boat,” Xinhua said, adding that the crew were all Chinese citizens, aged from 19 to 64.
Tensions are also brewing in another part of the sea, where China has warned Vietnam not to disrupt activities of Chinese companies operating near the Xisha Islands. Earlier, Hanoi said the movement of a Chinese oil rig into what it said was its “territorial waters” was “illegal.”
Vietnam deployed patrol vessels after the China Maritime Safety Administration issued a navigational warning on its website saying it would be drilling in the South China Sea.
Dozens of patrol boats and other navy and coast guard vessels from both countries are in the area, Vietnamese officials said. Some collisions had taken place, said a Vietnamese navy official.
Hua, responding to US criticism of the movement of the oil rig owned by China’s state-run oil company CNOOC, told reporters: “The United States has no right to complain about China’s activities within the scope of its own sovereignty.
“The drilling activity of this rig is within China’s territorial waters. The disruptive activities by the Vietnamese side are in violation of China’s sovereign rights,” she said.
“The drilling activities on the rig are completely legal, and we ask the Vietnamese side to stop their disruptive actions.”
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
