The incident took place in late September, when fishermen aboard 16 fishing vessels from the central province of Quang Ngai tried to land in the Paracels to escape typhoon Ketsana, and were fired upon by armed Chinese workers. They were then beaten, and their property and equipment were seized after the typhoon abated.

In response to queries about Vietnam’s reaction to the incident, spokesperson Nguyen Phuong Nga said that “the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry on October 21 conveyed a diplomatic note to the Chinese Ambassador to Vietnam to protest these inhumane acts by China’s armed workers against Vietnamese fishermen, who took shelter from a storm on Phu Lam island (called Tru Cau island by the Vietnamese fishermen) in Vietnam’s Paracels archipelago which is occupied by China.”

In the diplomatic note, the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry asked the Chinese side to actively conduct investigations into the case and strictly punish those who took brutal acts against the Vietnamese fishermen, return all property and compensate the victims for damages, as well as take preventive measures to avoid the recurrence of similar acts in future, she added.