Vietnam accuses Chinese ships of ramping up South China Sea tensions

Hanoi says Beijing’s survey and coastguard vessels are widening their activities in disputed, energy-rich waters

Reading Time:2 minutes

The Haiyang Dizhi 8 has made several passes through foreign-owned blocks off the coast of central Vietnam, according to Marine Traffic. Photo: Weibo

Published: 5:39pm, 4 Oct 2019Updated: 10:47pm, 4 Oct 2019

Vietnam accused a Chinese oil-surveying vessel and coastguard escorts of territorial violations by widening their activities after entering the country’s exclusive economic zone and operating within offshore blocks for three months.

As of Friday, the ship called the Haiyang Dizhi 8 has made several passes through the foreign-owned blocks off the coast of central Vietnam after leaving Chinese-controlled Fiery Cross Reef on September 28, according to Marine Traffic satellite tracking data.

At least two China Coast Guard ships further south meanwhile have in recent days manoeuvred around a Singaporean-flagged support vessel in an oil block operated by Russia’s state-owned Rosneft Oil, the data shows.

“The Chinese survey vessel Haiyang Dizhi 8 and its escort vessels continue, and expand their operations within Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone and continental shelf, thus seriously violating Vietnam’s sovereign rights,” Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang said in Hanoi on Thursday.

Vietnam, which shares a long border with its fellow communist country, stands virtually alone in the region as it pushes back against Beijing amid territorial disputes in the South China Sea, a region containing unexploited hydrocarbons that the US says could be worth US$2.5 trillion.