The Chinese ships that are guarding China’s illegal oil rig Haiyang Shiyou 981 in Vietnamese waters have attempted to ram local ships both day and night over the past two days, the Vietnam Fisheries Resources Surveillance Department reported on Thursday.

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China yesterday deployed 117-121 vessels to the waters, including 41-43 coast guard ships, 13-14 transport boats, 17-18 tugboats, 40 iron-clad fishing boats and six military ships, the department said.

Throughout the day on Thursday, these foreign vessels were often deployed on the two sides of the platform, ready to surround and crash into approaching local vessels, said Nguyen Van Hung, Captain of Vietnam Coast Guard vessel CSB 8003.

Tuoi Tre's clip of the attack by Chinese vessels on Vietnamese fisheries surveillance ship KN-951 on June 23, 2014

“Chinese boats were arranged in arcs on both sides of the rig. They waited for our vessels to approach the platform to close the encirclement tight and attack us with a pincer movement,” he said.

In the face of such a “trap,” local vessels must always be vigilant to avoid being rammed or fired at by the foreign boats, he added.

After finding most of the Vietnamese vessels did not enter into the “pincer’s jaw,” three Chinese coast guard ships simultaneously sped up toward local Coast Guard ship CSB 8003, the largest among the local vessels in the area, Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper correspondents who were on board the vessel reported.

When the foreign ships reached an area about two nautical miles from vessel CSB 8003, the latter was ordered to move away to avoid a possible collision.

China has also deployed many spying and fighter planes to the area to threaten Vietnamese boats over the past several days.

At 8:30 am on Thursday, a Chinese military plane hovered at an altitude of over 1,000 meters above the Vietnamese vessels that were getting close to the rig to demand that it and its escorting ships leave the Vietnamese waters.

Not only aggressive in the daytime, Chinese vessels have also been trying to attack local ships at night.

At 8:30 pm yesterday, when Vietnamese vessels were as far as 14 nautical miles from the rig, they were still approached by Chinese ships.  About 1,200 meters from vessel CSB 8003, two Chinese coast guard ships #3210 and #33002 turned on and directed their powerful floodlights at the local vessel as a threat.

When the local vessels did not retreat, these foreign ships did the same to other Vietnamese boats nearby, but these local vessels did not make any concession, either.

However, when finding that the foreign ships moved forward aggressively, local vessels immediately moved away from them to avoid being hit.

China has maintained the drilling platform in the Vietnamese waters since May 1, despite Vietnam’s repeated demands that China withdraw the rig and its guarding ships immediately and unconditionally.

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