The chairmen of the Hoang Sa Islands district and the central city of Da Nang's Fishery Association have described the Chinese attacks on Vietnamese trawlers as "muscled aggression".
On May 26, Chinese ship coded 11209 rammed and sank Vietnamese trawler DNa 90152 from Da Nang city.
The 10 crewmen were left floundering in the water and had to be rescued by other Vietnamese trawlers.
Chairman of the Hoang Sa district, Vo Cong Chanh, strongly condemned the aggressive attacks by the Chinese vessel. The district comes under the control of the central Vietnamese city of Da Nang.
Chanh said the actions threatened lives and blocked the traditional occupation of Vietnamese fishermen in Vietnam's sea.
"We ask China to stop violations of Vietnam's sovereignty," he said.
The chairman also requested all fishermen in the city and along the whole Vietnamese coast to keep fishing in Vietnam's waters and to join in the protection of the country's sea and islands.
Chairman of the city's fishery association, Tran Van Linh, also spoke out about the sinking.
He said it happened near where China had illegally placed the Haiyang Shiyou-981 drilling rig in Vietnam's exclusive economic zone and continental shelf.
"The Fishery Association denounces the attack as an extremely brutal, inhuman and aggressive action," Linh said in a report on May 28.
"The action of the Chinese vessel, which was disguised as a fishing boat, was an intentional act to slaughter the fishermen.
"We ask China to withdraw the Haiyang Shiyou-981 oil drilling rig from Vietnam's waters," he said.
The association added that the Chinese attack meant the loss of a 5 billion VND (235,000 USD) Vietnamese fishing boat.
The association has proposed that relevant Vietnamese agencies press for compensation from China.
On May 2, 2014, China illegally dispatched the rig Haiyang Shiyou-981 as well as a large fleet of armed vessels, military ships and aircraft to Vietnam’s waters. Since then China’s armed vessels aggressively fired high-power water cannons at and intentionally rammed against Vietnamese public-service and civil ships, causing damage to many boats and injuring many people on board.
Chinese ships have continuously encircled, constrained, driven away and even injured Vietnamese fishermen, threatening their lives. The attacks damaged boats and injured fishermen. On May 26, Chinese ship 11209 sank a Vietnamese fishing vessel while it was operating normally in its traditional fishing ground near Vietnam’s Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago.-VNA
