As if global investors needed another excuse to buy stocks, China has escalated geopolitical tensions to 11 on the Spinal Tap amplifier of seriousness. With over 70 vessels in and around the Paracel Islands – where China has provocatively placed an oil rig in disputed Vietnamese territorial waters – it was only a matter of time before the blue touch paper was lit. As Yahoo Japan reports, a Vietnamese fishing vessel has sunk after being rammed by a Chinese vessel and the 10 fishermen have been rescued. While Vietnam has not responded yet, the Coast Guard warned “the situation at the site it very tense.”
- *CHINESE SHIP ATTACKS, SINKS VIETNAMESE FISHING BOAT, NEWS SAYS
As Bloomberg reports,
Chinese vessel attacks, sinks Vietnamese fishing boat with 10 crew members yday, Vietnam News reports, without saying where it got the information.
Vietnamese crew rescued by other Vietnamese boats, newspaper says
Incident occurred about 4pm 17 nautical miles from China’s Haiyang Shiyou-981 oil rig, newspaper reports
Vietnamese ship DNa 90152 operating out of Danang encircled by 40 Chinese fishing vessels in waters Vietnam says is in its exclusive economic zone, newspaper says
Chinese vessel 11209 attacked Vietnamese boat, newspaper reports
Red line Mr Obama?
Meanwhile, the two sides are also tossing verbal grenades…
Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry held a press conference on Friday when officials stressed the country’s historical claim to the Paracels.
“Historical and legal evidence shows that Vietnam has absolute sovereignty in the Paracel and Spratly archipelagos,” said Tran Duy Hai, deputy head of Vietnam’s National Border Committee.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang disagreed.
“Seeing that the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry held a press conference last Friday on the subject, I felt it was extremely ridiculous,” he said at a briefing on Monday. “The Paracels are the indisputable territory of the Chinese people.”
via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1tHE4aL Tyler Durden