Chinese ship heads away from Vietnam in South China Sea standoff

By James Pearson
HANOI, Aug 7 (Reuters) - A Chinese survey ship which has
been embroiled in a tense month-long standoff with Vietnamese
vessels has headed away from Vietnam's Exclusive Economic Zone
(EEZ), a Washington-based think tank said on Wednesday.
Since early July, Vietnamese ships have closely tracked
Chinese vessels operating within the Southeast Asian country's
EEZ, in the latest confrontation in waters that are a potential
global flashpoint as the United States challenges China's
sweeping maritime claims. "Ship tracking data show that China's survey ship has exited
the Vietnamese EEZ for now, but at least two of its coast guard
escorts remain in the area of the survey," Devin Thorne, senior
analyst at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS) told
Reuters, citing data from maritime analytics company Windward.
"Vietnamese ships pursued Haiyang Dizhi 8 as it returned to
Fiery Cross Reef and now appear to be loitering just outside of
Vietnam's EEZ," Thorne added.
Fiery Cross Reef is a man-made island, controlled by China,
built on a disputed South China Sea reef, to which Vietnam and
the Philippines have competing claims.
It was not clear late on Wednesday if China's Haiyang Dizhi
8 survey vessel planned to return to Vietnam's EEZ, Thorne said.
The survey ship, operated by the China Geological Survey,
has been conducting what appears to be seismic survey of
Vietnam's offshore oil blocks, according to the Windward data.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has criticised Chinese
"coercion" in the disputed South China Sea, while Beijing's top
diplomat, Wang Yi, said last week that maritime problems
involving Vietnam should not interfere with two-way ties.
The offshore impasse has stoked anti-China sentiment in
Vietnam, where previous tensions between Beijing and Hanoi over
the disputed waters have erupted into protest.
Last week, a Vietnamese fishermen's group urged the
government to take stronger measures to remove the ships, saying
they were disrupting fishing activities. And on Tuesday, Vietnamese police broke up a brief
demonstration outside the Chinese embassy in Hanoi against the
operations of the vessel and its escorts. Also on Tuesday, the Philippines, which is also embroiled in
maritime disputes with Beijing, said its president Rodrigo
Duterte would meet Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping soon to
discuss a 2016 arbitration case over the South China Sea.
That ruling in international law invalidated China's claim,
based on its so-called "nine-dash line", to historic sovereignty
over most of the busy and resource-rich waterway.