Chinese ship aggressively fires water cannon at Vietnamese vessel (Source: Vietnam Coast Guard)
(VOVworld) – The Chinese Foreign Ministry held a press conference Thursday to defend its placement of oil rig HD-981 in Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone. China continued to proclaim its sovereignty in the East Sea and blame Vietnam. But China didn’t produce anything to prove its accusations that Vietnamese ships had obstructed Chinese vessels.
A VOV correspondent in Beijing who attended the press conference reported that despite being repeatedly questioned, representatives of the Chinese Foreign Ministry and China National Offshore Oil Corporation didn’t explain why China had to deploy more than 80 ships of various kinds to escort one drilling rig. 3 or 4 ships would be normal. The representative of the Chinese Foreign Ministry avoided answering questions about whether Chinese ships had used water cannons to attack Vietnamese vessels and how many ships China had sent to the drilling oil.
The Foreign Ministry representative expressed a hope of resolving the situation through negotiations. Yi Xianliang, Deputy Director General of the Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs of China's Foreign Ministry, said that since the incident took place, there have been 14 separate discussions. Yi emphasized that China is willing to resolve the issue through talks with Vietnam.