Chinese troops fired warning shots in South China Sea stand-off in 2006, says report
Garrison on a reef off the Spratly Islands squared up to armed ship from an unnamed country, Defence Ministry newspaper says
A state media report has alleged that warning shots were fired by Chinese troops in a stand-off with an armed foreign fishing vessel off disputed islands in the South China Sea in 2006.
Lan Yongqing, a soldier who was stationed at the Gaven Reef in the Spratly Islands, said divers from the armed ship began exploring the reef while Chinese forces were celebrating the Lunar New Year holiday, according to the Zhongguo Guofang Bao, a newspaper published by the Defence Ministry in Beijing.
“We then fired some warning shots into the air,” Lan was quoted as saying. “We spent our festival in a very tense environment.”
The report did not say which country the armed fishing vessel came from.
China is embroiled in a series of territorial disputes in the South China Seas, most prominently with Vietnam and the Philippines.
Parts of the disputed waters are also claimed by Taiwan, Brunei and Malaysia.