China criticises sailing of Vietnamese fishing boats in the South China Sea;

Beijing/Da Nang: A Chinese study group and analysts accused that 300 Vietnamese fishing boats intruded into the Chinese marine limits and carried out espionage activities. The Chinese study group said that this incident occurred two weeks ago. The study group said that it has no evidence to prove this.

Peking University Institute of Ocean Research recently published a report. This report says that 300 Vietnamese fishing boats sailed near the marine limits of Guangdong, Guanxi and Hainan provinces. The Chinese study group accused that 212 boats out of these entered the maritime limits of the Hainan province. Whereas, 99 boats intruded into the Tonkin Gulf.

Other than these, 73 Vietnamese boats sailed near the Chinese military base. The study group accused that this patrolling amounts to espionage at the military base. The study group claimed that these boats tampered with their transponder signals and used Chinese ids to avoid detection on the Chinese radars. However, it also said that it did not have evidence in support of the claim.

Analysts from Singapore raised doubts regarding these Chinese accusations. Le Hong Hiep from the Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore said ‘China Should produce strong evidence to prove these accusations.’ Hiep reminded of the attack carried out by Chinese fishing boats in the Vietnamese marine limits, saying ‘Even if the Vietnamese boats have carried out this act, it is a repetition of the Chinese act.’

Meanwhile, while the Chinese study group and analysts are making noise over the sailing of the Vietnamese boats, the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, of the United States, has reached Vietnam along with its fleet. This is the second instance of the US aircraft carrier visiting Vietnam, along with its fleet, in the last two years.