China illegally building school in Vietnam’s Hoang Sa archipelago

The school will serve about 40 children whose parents work there and the illegal construction will cost about 36 million yuan (US$5.8 million) and take a year and a half, according to the agency.

China established so-called Sansha City on Phu Lam Island in July 2012 to unlawfully administer the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagos of Vietnam despite strong opposition from Hanoi and the international community.

On Friday, Vietnam opposed China over Beijing’s illegal deployment of drilling rig Haiyang Shiyou 981 to Vietnamese waters in the East Vietnam Sea at the 24th meeting of States-Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in New York.

Over the last one month and a half, China has deployed a huge number of vessels, including big iron-clad fishing boats, to guard the rig and attack Vietnamese vessels, including fishing boats. 

China’s large iron-clad fishing boats have rammed a dozen Vietnamese fishing boats in the waters, injuring several fishermen, and damaging their vessels.

Notably, on May 26, Chinese vessel #11209 slammed into and sank Vietnamese fishing boat DNa 90152 with ten crew members aboard. All the Vietnamese fishermen were rescued by another Vietnamese fishing boat the same day.