>> China’s power thirst underpins sovereignty breach>> China boats violate Vietnam sea, cut cables again>> China boats damage VN ship’s cables again (video) >> China ships violate Vietnam sovereignty As shown on the website of PetroVietnam (PVN), at 4:05 am of November 30, 2012, when Binh Minh 02, a State-owned ship that was conducting a seismic survey in the sedimentary basin outside the mouth of the Gulf of Tonkin, it encountered a large number of Chinese fishing boats operating there.  When Vietnam’s concerned agencies sent warning signals to Chinese boats, requesting them to leave the area of working of Binh Minh 02, two out of these Chinese boats numbered 16025 and 16028 sailed through the back of the Vietnamese ship. The move of the two boats cut off Binh Minh 02's seismic survey cables. At that time, Binh Minh 02 was located at 17.26 degrees North latitude and 108.02 degrees West longitude, about 43 nautical miles southeast of Vietnam’s Con Co Island and 20 miles west of the median line between Vietnam and China.  Binh Minh 02 has carried out 2D seismic surveys in sedimentary basins on the Vietnamese continental shelf since May 2012, said Pham Viet Dung, deputy head of the Search and Exploration Division of PVN, said.  Dung also said a large number of Chinese fishing boats have recently entered Vietnam’s sea areas illegally to fish from Con Co Island area to south of Tri Ton Island. The number of those boats could amount to more than 100 per day. Vietnam’s law-enforcing boats have required Chinese fishing boats to leave Vietnam’s sea territory but many of them deliberately violated Vietnam’s sea areas.

The fact that Chinese fishing boats illegally entered and caught fish in Vietnam’s sea areas not only violated Vietnam’s sovereignty and sovereignty rights but also prevented normal activities of Vietnamese fishermen and affected PVN’s operations at sea, Dung said.

Immediately after the Binh Minh 02 had its cable cut last Friday, PVN has urged its affiliated units and Binh Minh 02 to rapidly repair the damaged cable so that the ship could resume normal operation soon.  At 2 pm December 1, 2012, the repair was completed and Binh Minh 02 began to work normally again, PVN said. The same incident occurred last year when three Chinese surveillance ships cut exploration cables of the Binh Minh 02 ship when it was operating on the continental shelf of Vietnam on May 26, 2011.  Three days later, on May 29, the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs held a press conference over the incident and the then spokesperson of the ministry, Nguyen Phuong Nga, said, “Vietnam demands Chinese side to immediately stop all actions violating Vietnam’s sovereignty and jurisdiction and compensate for losses”.