A Chinese coast guard ship and a Vietnamese fisheries patrol boat came “dangerously” close in the South China Sea as the Chinese ship was spotted crossing Vietnam’s waters, a U.S. researcher said on Sunday.
The incident was first spotted by Ray Powell, the Project Myoushu (South China Sea) lead at Stanford University, who cited data based on the ships’ automatic identification system (AIS) signals, Radio Free Asia reported.
“AIS tracking indicates a dangerously close encounter between China’s coast guard ship 5205 [and] Vietnam’s fisheries surveillance ship KN-278,” Powell stated on Twitter.
Powell said the Vietnamese boat initiated shadowing operations south of Vanguard Bank on March 25 after spotting the Chinese coast guard ship cross into its exclusive economic zone (EEZ)….