Chinese, Vietnamese Ships Have Close Encounter in South China Sea: Report

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A Chinese coast guard ship and a Vietnamese fisheries patrol boat came “dangerously” close in the South China Sea as the Chinese ship was spotted crossing Vietnam’s waters, a U.S. researcher said on Sunday.

The incident was first spotted by Ray Powell, the Project Myoushu (South China Sea) lead at Stanford University, who cited data based on the ships’ automatic identification system (AIS) signals, Radio Free Asia reported.

“AIS tracking indicates a dangerously close encounter between China’s coast guard ship 5205 [and] Vietnam’s fisheries surveillance ship KN-278,” Powell stated on Twitter.

Powell said the Vietnamese boat initiated shadowing operations south of Vanguard Bank on March 25 after spotting the Chinese coast guard ship cross into its exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

An EEZ typically extends 200 nautical miles beyond a country’s territorial waters, within which a coastal nation has jurisdiction over natural resources and the ability to control activities.

The Vietnamese boat followed the Chinese ship, and they kept a distance of about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) in Vietnam’s EEZ. But on March 26, the two ships appeared to come within 10 meters apart on parallel courses, Powell stated.

The Chinese coast guard ship departed Vietnam’s EEZ two hours after the incident and sailed to Malaysia’s EEZ.

“The Vietnamese ship was pretty bold given the difference in size—the Chinese ship is twice the size of the Vietnamese ship,” Powell told the news outlet. “It must have been a very tense engagement.”

A China Coast Guard ship (L) chases a Vietnam Coast Guard vessel near the site of a Chinese drilling oil rig being installed at the disputed water in the South China Sea off Vietnam’s central coast on May 14, 2014. (Hoang Dinh Nam/AFP via Getty Images)

The same Chinese coast guard vessel approached a Philippine coast guard ship in Ayungin Shoal in the South China Sea earlier in February and used a military-grade laser on the ship, temporarily blinding the crew.

The Philippines Coast Guard said the Chinese ship made “dangerous maneuvers” by approaching within 150 yards (137 meters) of its starboard quarter.

Vietnam and China have for years been embroiled in a dispute over the potentially energy-rich stretch of water.

In April 2020, Vietnam lodged an official protest with Beijing following the sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat it said had been rammed by a Chinese maritime surveillance vessel in the South China Sea.

The Vietnamese fishing vessel, with eight fishermen on board, was fishing near the Paracel Islands when it was rammed and sunk by the Chinese vessel, according to Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry.

All the fishermen were picked up by the Chinese vessel alive and were transferred to two other Vietnamese fishing vessels operating nearby, the Vietnam Fisheries Society said in a statement.

A Chinese oil survey vessel conducted operations in Vietnamese-controlled waters for more than three months in 2019, causing a tense standoff between vessels from the two countries.

Beijing claims much of the South China Sea as its own territory under its so-called “nine-dash line,” a claim that the Hague Tribunal ruled in 2016 has no legal basis. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Brunei all have competing claims against Beijing.

Reuters contributed to this report.