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Chinese Captain Rams Ship into Russian Bullets
February 21, 2009
Chinese Officials Protest Sinking of Ship by Russians
By EDWARD WONG
BEIJING — A senior Chinese Foreign Ministry official said Friday that Russia had an unacceptable response after one of its warships sank a Chinese cargo vessel last Saturday.
The warship fired 500 rounds at the vessel, sinking it in stormy Russian waters near the eastern port city of Vladivostok. Seven sailors are still missing, according to Xinhua, China’s state news agency. The ship, named the “New Star,” was owned by a company based in Hong Kong and was flying a Sierra Leone flag at the time of the sinking.
Zhang Xiyun, director-general of the Department of European-Central Asian Affairs in the Foreign Ministry, said the attitude taken by the Russian Foreign Ministry was “hard to understand and unacceptable,” according to Xinhua. Mr. Zhang made his opinion known on Friday afternoon to Morgulov Igor, the Russian Minister Counselor to China.
Li Hui, the deputy foreign minister, has also expressed “strong dissatisfaction” with the way Russia has handled the episode, and has accused Russia of not making strong enough efforts to save the drowning sailors, Xinhua reported.
On Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said the captain of the Chinese ship was to blame for the sinking, according to the state-run RIA Novosti news agency.
The agency reported that the ship had earlier been chased by two Russian coast guard vessels, but refused to stop despite being fired upon.
“We regret the tragic consequences of this incident,” said Andrei Nesterenko, a foreign ministry spokesman, according to the news agency. “However we consider the captain of the New Star, who behaved extremely irresponsibly, is fully to blame for the incident.”
Neither the Chinese nor Russian governments have fully explained why Russian ships were pursuing the Chinese vessel. RIA Novosti reported that there were indications that the ship violated the Russian border, while other reports said that the ship had been held earlier for suspected smuggling by Russian authorities and had set sail without permission.
The ship’s 16 crew members, all of them Indonesian or Chinese citizens, attempted to escape in two lifeboats after their ship was shot, but only half were rescued by a Russian vessel, the Russian news agency reported. Eight sailors were lost at sea, the agency said.
Those numbers are somewhat different than the ones given by Xinhua, which reported Friday that seven sailors were still missing and three had been rescued.
China and Russia usually have good relations, and Vladimir Putin was warmly welcomed by Chinese leaders at the Summer Olympics last August in Beijing. Some friction arose, though, when China refused to support the Russian invasion of Georgia.
Chinese officials are wary of any secessionist movements in the world, fearing that such movements will fuel independence movements in Tibet, Taiwan and Xinjiang. So they strongly disapproved of Russia’s recognition of the independence of South Ossetia, the separatist enclave over which Russia and Georgia fought last year.
Clifford J. Levy contributed reporting from Moscow.
Chinese Officials Protest Sinking of Ship by Russians
By EDWARD WONG
BEIJING — A senior Chinese Foreign Ministry official said Friday that Russia had an unacceptable response after one of its warships sank a Chinese cargo vessel last Saturday.
The warship fired 500 rounds at the vessel, sinking it in stormy Russian waters near the eastern port city of Vladivostok. Seven sailors are still missing, according to Xinhua, China’s state news agency. The ship, named the “New Star,” was owned by a company based in Hong Kong and was flying a Sierra Leone flag at the time of the sinking.
Zhang Xiyun, director-general of the Department of European-Central Asian Affairs in the Foreign Ministry, said the attitude taken by the Russian Foreign Ministry was “hard to understand and unacceptable,” according to Xinhua. Mr. Zhang made his opinion known on Friday afternoon to Morgulov Igor, the Russian Minister Counselor to China.
Li Hui, the deputy foreign minister, has also expressed “strong dissatisfaction” with the way Russia has handled the episode, and has accused Russia of not making strong enough efforts to save the drowning sailors, Xinhua reported.
On Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said the captain of the Chinese ship was to blame for the sinking, according to the state-run RIA Novosti news agency.
The agency reported that the ship had earlier been chased by two Russian coast guard vessels, but refused to stop despite being fired upon.
“We regret the tragic consequences of this incident,” said Andrei Nesterenko, a foreign ministry spokesman, according to the news agency. “However we consider the captain of the New Star, who behaved extremely irresponsibly, is fully to blame for the incident.”
Neither the Chinese nor Russian governments have fully explained why Russian ships were pursuing the Chinese vessel. RIA Novosti reported that there were indications that the ship violated the Russian border, while other reports said that the ship had been held earlier for suspected smuggling by Russian authorities and had set sail without permission.
The ship’s 16 crew members, all of them Indonesian or Chinese citizens, attempted to escape in two lifeboats after their ship was shot, but only half were rescued by a Russian vessel, the Russian news agency reported. Eight sailors were lost at sea, the agency said.
Those numbers are somewhat different than the ones given by Xinhua, which reported Friday that seven sailors were still missing and three had been rescued.
China and Russia usually have good relations, and Vladimir Putin was warmly welcomed by Chinese leaders at the Summer Olympics last August in Beijing. Some friction arose, though, when China refused to support the Russian invasion of Georgia.
Chinese officials are wary of any secessionist movements in the world, fearing that such movements will fuel independence movements in Tibet, Taiwan and Xinjiang. So they strongly disapproved of Russia’s recognition of the independence of South Ossetia, the separatist enclave over which Russia and Georgia fought last year.
Clifford J. Levy contributed reporting from Moscow.
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