[Arab News] HANOI: Vietnam on Thursday accused Chinese war ships of pointing their weapons at Vietnamese vessels during an escalating standoff near an oil rig in contested waters.The tense confrontation came as China moved its deep-sea rig to a new location earlier this week that Hanoi considers is still within its territory.
China moved the rig?
"When we approached (the Chinese warships guarding the rig) they uncovered their guns, turned them and pointed them at the Vietnamese vessels," Ha Le, deputy chief of Vietnam's Fisheries Surveillance Department, told AFP.
Japanese media, meanwhile, reported a standoff during which at least eight Chinese ships surrounded and trained their machine guns on a Vietnamese coastguard boat, just six kilometers from the rig.
One Chinese ship kept a machine gun pointed on the Vietnamese vessel as it came within just 200 meters, according to a Yomiuri Shimbun journalist at the scene.
The report said that at least 100 Chinese ships had been in the area as Chinese jets flew overhead.