Six Vietnamese fishermen who were illegally captured by Chinese vessels off Vietnam’s Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago on July 3 are being held on China’s Hainan Island, the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Thursday.

The notice was released by the ministry’s spokesman, Le Hai Binh, at a regular press conference held in Hanoi yesterday.

“These fishermen and their boats are being detained at the Sanya port in Sanya City on the Chinese island of Hainan,” Binh said.

“According to the latest report we received from the Vietnamese Consulate General in Guangzhou Province, all the fishermen were in normal condition,” he said.

The consulate is working closely with China’s competent agencies to clarify the illegal detention, the diplomat said.

In a talk with Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Thursday about the issue, Vietnamese Ambassador to China Nguyen Van Tho said the embassy has demanded that the Chinese authorities release the fishermen and their vessel as soon as possible.

The embassy’s representatives have visited the detainees and given them gifts and relieved their mind, Tho said.

As previously reported, at 8:00 am on July 3, when these fishermen, of central Quang Ngai Province, were operating on board their ship, QNg 94912 TS, in the Vietnamese waters around Hoang Sa, many Chinese ships, including fisheries law enforcement command vessel #3103, appeared and surrounded them.

They seized vessel QNg 94912 TS along with the six fishermen aboard including captain Vo Tan Teo and towed it away.

At that time, a Vietnamese fisherman, Huynh Kim Co, who was on board his boat operating nearby, witnessed the seizure.

He used his ICOM walkie-talkie to report the incident to local authorities.

The Vietnam Fisheries Society on Monday issued a statement strongly decrying China for illegally detaining the fishermen and demanded that China release these fishermen and their vessel immediately and stop its acts of aggression, intimidation, property seizure, and the illegal arrest of Vietnamese fishermen.

The seizure occurred amid the increased tension in the East Vietnam Sea after Beijing illegally dispatched its oil rig Haiyang Shiyou 981 to the Vietnamese waters near Hoang Sa in early May, despite strong protests from Hanoi. 

China has also deployed more than 100 vessels per day, including military ships, to the area to guard the drilling platform and these vessels have often rammed or fired their water cannons at the Vietnamese ships there.

Such attacks have so far injured 15 fisheries surveillance and Coast Guard officers as well as four fishermen.

Chinese vessels even crashed into and sank a fishing ship of central Da Nang City on May 26, leaving behind 10 fishermen drifting at sea before they were saved by another Vietnamese vessel.

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