Vietnam has issued a scathing rebuke to China after Chinese government vessels boarded a Vietnamese fishing vessel and assaulted its crew Sunday in contested waters of the South China Sea, according to Vietnamese state media.
Vietnamese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Pham Thu Hang in a statement issued Wednesday that Hanoi "resolutely opposes the brutal behavior of Chinese law enforcement forces towards Vietnamese fishermen and fishing vessels operating in the Paracel Islands area of Vietnam."
The Paracel Islands, known in Vietnam as Hoang Sa, lie roughly 250 miles east of Vietnam and about 220 miles southeast of China's Hainan province.
While both neighbors claim the archipelago, China has maintained de facto control there since defeating then-South Vietnam in a naval battle in 1974 and frequently assaults Vietnamese fishing boats operating in the area.
Pham stressed that Sunday's attack injured the anglers, threatened their lives and damaged their property.
China's actions also "seriously violated" Vietnam's sovereignty over the Paracel Islands and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the spokesperson added. The raid also ran counter to the "mutual understanding" the countries' senior leaders had reached on managing their maritime disputes," she added.
Newsweek reached out to the Chinese Foreign Ministry with a written request for comment.
On Sunday, a fishing boat based out of Vietnam's Quang Nga province was pursued by a pair of Chinese ships from the Hainan-based Sansha City Comprehensive Law Enforcement Bureau, each more than 300 feet long, according to the report.
Bureau personnel in rigid-hulled-inflatable rafts then boarded the vessel and beat its occupants with metal rods, according to crew members' accounts. Seven of the 10 suffered injuries including three with broken limbs.
The intruders also damaged the ship's equipment and stole about 6 tons of the crew's catch, one crew member told reporters.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry told Reuters that the bureau's actions had been "professional and restrained" and denied there had been any injuries.
China's "dashed line" claims over most of the South China Sea overlap with several neighbors, and clashes with the Philippines inside its internationally recognized exclusive economic zone this year injured sailors and sparked speculation over what would trigger the U.S.-Philippine Mutual Defense Treaty.
Hanoi-Beijing relations have been generally warmer in recent years, boosting bilateral ties to the level of Comprehensive Strategic Partnership last year and in August conducting their first joint coast guard drills.
However, their territorial disputes remain a recurring point of friction, such as earlier this year when China declared it was extending its territorial claims in the Gulf of Tonkin with a new baseline.
Pham said the foreign ministry had contacted the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi to express its firm opposition to the actions by Chinese law enforcement.
The ministry told China not to let the incident be repeated and requested that it "fully respect Vietnam's sovereignty over the Paracel Islands, urgently investigate [the incident] and notify the Vietnamese side of the results."
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