(Updates with comment from Chinese foreign ministry, paragraphs
6,7,12)
By Khanh Vu and James Pearson
HANOI, April 14 (Reuters) - A Chinese ship embroiled in a
standoff with Vietnamese vessels last year has returned to
waters near Vietnam as the United States accused China of
pushing its presence in the South China Sea while other
claimants are pre-occupied with the coronavirus.
Vietnamese vessels last year spent months shadowing the
Chinese Haiyang Dizhi 8 survey vessel in resource-rich waters
that are a potential global flashpoint as the United States
challenges China's sweeping maritime claims.
On Tuesday, the ship, which is used for offshore seismic
surveys, appeared again 158 km (98 miles) off Vietnam's coast,
within its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), flanked by at least
one China Coast Guard vessel, according to data from Marine
Traffic, a website that tracks shipping.
At least three Vietnamese vessels were moving with the
Chinese ship, according to data issued by the Marine Traffic
site.
Vietnam was closely monitoring activity in the South China
Sea, its Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
China's foreign ministry said the ship was not doing
anything unusual.
"The Chinese survey ship was conducting normal activities in
waters administered by China," ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian
told a daily news briefing in Beijing on Wednesday.
The presence of the Haiyang Dizhi 8 in Vietnam's EEZ comes
towards the scheduled end of a 15-day nationwide lockdown in
Vietnam aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus.
It also follows the sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat
near islands in the disputed waters this month, an act that drew
a protest from Vietnam and accusations that China had violated
its sovereignty and threatened the lives of its fishermen.
The United States, which last month sent an aircraft carrier
to the central Vietnamese port of Danang, said it was "seriously
concerned" about China's reported sinking of the vessel.
"We call on the PRC to remain focused on supporting
international efforts to combat the global pandemic, and to stop
exploiting the distraction or vulnerability of other states to
expand its unlawful claims in the South China Sea," the U.S.
State Department said in a statement, referring to China.
But Zhao said some U.S. officials had been using the South
China Sea issue to smear China.
'BASELESS'
The Philippines, which also has disputed claims in the South
China Sea, has raised its concerns too.
On Saturday, China's Global Times, published by the official
People's Daily newspaper of China's ruling Communist Party, said
Vietnam had used the fishing boat incident to distract from its
"ineptitude" in handling the coronavirus.
Helped by a mass quarantine and aggressive contact-tracing,
Vietnam has recorded 267 cases of the novel coronavirus and no
deaths. Nearly 122,000 coronavirus tests have been carried out
in Vietnam. China and Vietnam have for years been at loggerheads over
the potentially energy-rich waters, called the East Sea by
Vietnam.
China's U-shaped "nine-dash line" on its maps marks a vast
expanse of the waters that it claims, including large parts of
Vietnam's continental shelf where it has awarded oil
concessions. Malaysia and Brunei claim some of the waters that
China claims to the south.
During the standoff last year, at least one China Coast
Guard vessel spent weeks in waters close to an oil rig in a
Vietnamese oil block, operated by Russia's Rosneft ROSN.MM ,
while the Haiyang Dizhi 8 conducted suspected oil exploration
surveys in large expanses of Vietnam's EEZ.
"The deployment of the vessel is Beijing's move to once
again baselessly assert its sovereignty in the South China Sea,"
said Ha Hoang Hop, at the Singapore-based ISEAS-Yusof Ishak
Institute.
"China is using the coronavirus distraction to increase its
assertiveness in the South China Sea, at a time when the U.S.
and Europe are struggling to cope with the new coronavirus."