“So far, China has successfully rescued a total of 47 Vietnamese crew members, treated the injured among them, and orderly handed over all rescued crew members to Vietnam.” Regarding the news that “China has launched search and rescue operations after a Vietnamese cargo ship sank in the South China Sea,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian presented the latest progress at a routine press conference on the 27th.
Vietnamese rescue crew expresses gratitude to medical personnel on hospital ship Friendly
Lin Jian explained that on July 25th, China‘s “Nanhai Rescue 115” ship discovered and rescued 29 crew members of a Vietnamese ship in distress near the Nansha Archipelago. Following that, China immediately dispatched several ships and helicopters to continue the search and rescue operations. Lin Jian said that according to information, the Vietnamese ship sank in distress on the evening of July 24th, with a total of 62 crew members on board. Currently, some of the crew members have been lost contact, and the search and rescue work is still ongoing. In response to foreign media inquiries asking, “Does China believe that this Vietnamese ship sailed into Chinese territorial waters? Did this incident cause conflict between the two sides?” Lin Jian said that China immediately launched rescue after the Vietnamese ship encountered danger, and the Vietnamese expressed gratitude for this.
By the time the article was published, China‘s rescue work for shipwrecked Vietnamese vessels had been ongoing for two days. Regarding the situation of two Vietnamese shipwrecked crew members recently rescued by the Chinese Marine Police on the night of 26, the Sansha Sea Search and Rescue Branch Center told the Global Times reporter that the two aforementioned shipwrecked personnel had been successfully transferred to Vietnamese vessels by helicopter on 27.
Public reports showed that at 18:53 on July 25, the Sansha Sea Search and Rescue Branch Center reported to the Hainan Province Sea Search and Rescue Center that at 18:23 on July 25, the “South Sea Rescue 115” ship was on its way back to Sanya when it discovered a life raft about 38 nautical miles north of Yongshu Reef with several survivors on board. According to the survivors, the ship was the Vietnamese vessel “Khoi Nguyen 18”, which sank at 23:00 on July 24 near 220 nautical miles east of Qinghe, Vietnam.
A Vietnamese foreign ministry spokesperson said on the 26th: “Vietnam thanks China‘s relevant functional departments for providing timely search and rescue assistance. We hope that the two sides will continue to maintain close cooperation and jointly search for the remaining missing personnel.”