By Shannon Tiezzi
Media reports of violence used against Vietnamese fishermen come just before a major bilateral meeting in Beijing.
On Monday, Vietnamese state-run newspapers highlighted two recent encounters between Vietnamese fishing boats and Chinese vessels in disputed water near the Paracel Islands. The Vietnamese fishermen claimed they had been “attacked and robbed” by Chinese vessels, according to Thanh Nien.
The Paracel Islands have been entirely occupied by China since 1974, when China drove the remaining South Vietnamese troops away in a battle. Vietnam continues to claim the islands, but China refuses to recognize that a dispute exists.
The media reports noted two separate clashes between Vietnamese fishermen and unspecified Chinese ships near the Paracels, in what Thanh Nien described as the fishermen’s “traditional fishing grounds.” In the first incident, on June 7, two Vietnamese fishermen said they were injured after a Chinese vessel fired water cannons at their boat. Bui Tan Doan, one of the injured fishermen, told Thanh Nien that the water cannon fire continued for two hours, flooding the boat. “We signaled the ship not to use water cannons any more but they continued to do so while we were bailing water out,” Doan said. He said his left leg was broken in the attack; a picture of him in a large cast accompanied the story.
Read the full story at The Diplomat