 "Chinese ships are seen during a search and rescue exercise near Qilian Yu subgroup in the Paracel Islands, which is known in China as Xisha Islands, South China Sea, 14 July, 2016. Reuters")
Vietnam’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday (October 2) it was extremely concerned over China’s “brutal behaviour” during a violent attack on Vietnamese fishers in the disputed South China Sea.
Vietnamese foreign ministry spokesperson Pham Thu Hang said in a statement, “resolutely protests the brutal behaviour of Chinese law enforcement forces against Vietnamese fishermen and fishing vessels operating in the Hoang Sa archipelago of Vietnam.”
Hoang Sa archipelago is the Vietnamese term for the Paracel Islands. The archipelago in the resource-rich waterway claimed by China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Brunei.
The incident that the Vietnamese foreign ministry was referring to was one where men were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars’ worth of fish and equipment on Sunday off the Paracel Islands
Four of the 10-man Vietnamese crew were hospitalised on Monday (September 30) upon arriving at Quang Ngai port. The state-run Tien Phong newspaper reported that the men were attacked by around 40 people for three hours.