Russian Navy sinks Chinese merchant ship!

The Russian fired 500 rounds at this unarmed vessel. The ship is accused of smuggling.

What should be the Chinese response? Diplomatic? Or Military?

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Chinese Ship sinks in Russia waters, 7 missing.

Three of the 10 Chinese sailors onboard were saved but seven are still missing after the ship sank off the waters of Vladivostok," it said in a statement on its website.

The ministry didn't mention the cause of the incident, saying rescue efforts and an investigation into the incident are ongoing.

But the Global Times, a Chinese language newspaper based in Beijing, said yesterday the ship was fired on by the Russian navy before it sank, citing a Russian newspaper.

New Star, the cargo ship, was sequestered at the Russian port of Nakhodka earlier this month for alleged smuggling. It left the port not far from the Sino-Russian border without permission from Russian authorities last Thursday and was chased by a cruiser, the newspaper said.

Later, the warship shot at least 500 rounds onto the ship and forced it to sail back toward the port in force 6 winds.

However, the Chinese ship started to sink on the way. According to the report, in a period of almost 24 hours, Russian navy officers and soldiers onboard the cruiser watched the sinking boat and did not make any response to the cries for help from the crewmen.

In the end, 16 sailors onboard New Star got on two lifeboats. The Russian sailors managed to save one boat carrying eight people, while the other was engulfed in the waves.

Three of the missing sailors are Chinese while the other five came from Indonesia, the report said.

The coastal coordination and assistance center of Vladivostok announced on Sunday that a Russian coast guard cruiser saved eight foreign sailors trapped by bad weather. It did not mention the alleged fire from the Russian navy.

The Russian News Agency reported the incident yesterday and said the coast guard just found an empty boat in a three-day search. It also cited bad weather as the reason behind the accident.

According the International Maritime Organization, the owner of New Star is a shipping company of Zhejiang, while the operator is a company based in Guangzhou.

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I read news both on the net and local news.

I think the Russian Navy has over responded to that. The merchant ship is unarmed after all. They can fire warning shots, and if the ship doesn't stop, I think one or two shots to nonlethal area would really make it stop. I remember the Russian helo did the same thing to a Japanese trawler some years ago.

According to the news, the ship is from Hongkong, yet registered in Sierra Leone and flying the flag of Sierra Leone, NOT the PRC's flag! The captain of ship was a Malyasian.
They were unloading rice from Thailand.

Now they got screwed and saying they are a Chinese ship and wanting from China.
What bunch of losers. Russians are way out of line too. They deserve each other.

There's gotta be a lot more to this story than it appears. Stayed tuned for more details.

antimatter said:

According to the news, the ship is from Hongkong, yet registered in Sierra Leone and flying the flag of Sierra Leone, NOT the PRC's flag! The captain of ship was a Malyasian.
They were unloading rice from Thailand.

Now they got screwed and saying they are a Chinese ship and wanting from China.
What bunch of losers. Russians are way out of line too. They deserve each other.

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Could you verfiy this statement above whereas the story I posted plainly states;

ccording the International Maritime Organization, the owner of New Star is a shipping company of Zhejiang, while the operator is a company based in Guangzhou.

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I'd like very much to read the story you are referring to.

俄新社2月18日报道，被俄边防军击沉的"新星"号货船属于香港某航运公司所有，在塞拉利昂注册。俄新社了解到，"新星"号此次是给俄罗斯滨海区运送了一批大米。据消息人士对俄新社记者说:"卸完货后，收货方拒绝接收该批大米并向法院起诉，同时要求扣押该货船以弥补损失。之后，香港某航运公司就给"新星"号船长下命令，要其立即返回。"

俄新社2月18日报道，被俄边防军击沉的"新星"号货船属于香港某航运公司所有，在塞拉利昂注册。俄新社了解到，"新星"号此次是给俄罗斯滨海区运送了一批大米。据消息人士对俄新社记者说:"卸完货后，收货方拒绝接收该批大米并向法院起诉，同时要求扣押该货船以弥补损失。之后，香港某航运公司就给"新星"号船长下命令，要其立即返回报道说，塞拉利昂"新星"号货船（New Star）当天在未经许可的情况下擅自驶离俄罗斯纳霍德卡港，遭到俄罗斯边防军扣留。据初步得到的消息，俄罗斯边防军的"海岸"号军舰曾向"新星"号货船开火，并冷眼旁观船上人员死亡。"新星"号遇袭事件导致1人死亡，多人失踪。事件中，共有8人获救，获救人员中有印尼人和中国人




google translate
RIA Novosti reported that February 18 was the Russian frontier to sink the "Rising Star" is a vessel belonging to the Hong Kong shipping all, register in Sierra Leone. RIA Novosti that "star" is the coastal zone are transported to Russia a number of rice. According to Russian News Agency reporter informed sources said: "卸完goods, the recipient refused to take custody of the rice to the court and requested the seizure of the vessel to recover lost ground. After a Hong Kong shipping companies give" new star "No. captain under orders to return immediately.

Reported that Sierra Leone "Rising Star" freighter (New Star) the day of unauthorized leave without authorization Nakhodka Russia Hong Kong, was detained by Russian border guards. According to preliminary information obtained, the Russian border forces of the "Coastal" USS had "star" freighter opened fire, and cold-shouldered the death watch crew. "Rising Star" led the attack on No. 1 person killed and many disappeared. Incident, a total of 8 people were rescued, rescue personnel have the Indonesian and Chinese


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If the ship is strictly from China, then there would be strictly chinese sailors. There wouldn't be sailors from Indonesia. The captain is from Malaysia.

Thank you antimatter for posting that article.

Seems now there is more to the story!

This seems like quite a murky incident but in any case I doubt that the Chinese will do anything to drastic about this. We could expect that from the likes of Hugo Chavez, but not from Hu Jintao. The CCP leadership is too long-term oriented and technocratic to get too riled up about incidents like this, especially if the ships in not after all totally Chinese.

环球时报驻俄罗斯特约记者任留念报道，一艘中国货轮2月15日在俄罗斯纳霍德卡港附近沉没，船上10名中国船员中有3人获救，其余7人失踪。俄媒称，这艘船沉没前遭到了俄边防军的开火。据最新消息，俄罗斯检察官说，开火命令是俄联邦安全局下达的。

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According to mil.qianlong.com, the firing was ordered by Russian Federal Security Office.

:china::china::china:

China slams Russian attitude to sunken ship: report

2 hours, 9 minutes ago

BEIJING (AFP) - China's foreign ministry said Friday Russia's attitude to the sinking of a Chinese cargo ship by a Russian warship was "unacceptable", according to Chinese state media.

Eight of the 16 crew members on board were killed when shots from a Russian naval vessel sank the Chinese-owned cargo ship the New Star off Russia's east coast on Sunday.

Russia has blamed the cargo ship's captain for the incident.

The attitude of the Russian foreign ministry is "hard to understand and unacceptable" for China, said Zhang Xiyun, director-general for the Department of European-Central Asian Affairs, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

Earlier, China urged Russia to investigate the incident.

"The Chinese side expresses shock and deep concern over this incident," China's Vice Foreign Minister Li Hui told Russia's ambassador to China, according to a foreign ministry statement.

"We call on the Russian side to begin with a humanitarian spirit... and continue to make all efforts to find the missing personnel."

Russian diplomatic spokesman Andrey Nesterenko expressed regret over the incident but said the Chinese ship had failed to heed warning shots.

"We regret the tragic consequences of this incident," he told the Ria-Novosti news agency.

"But at the same time, we put all the responsibility on the captain of the New Star, who acted in a totally irresponsible manner.

"We took exhaustive measures to stop the boat: the border guards fired warning shots, but the New Star continued on its way without reacting to the orders," he added.

Russian prosecutors said 10 Chinese and six Indonesian sailors were on board the vessel, the Russian Interfax news agency reported.

Russian news reports said eight people had been killed in the incident, although these figures have yet to be confirmed by authorities.

The Sierra Leone-flagged, Chinese-owned vessel New Star had earlier fled the Russian port of Nakhodka where it had been impounded for alleged smuggling, media reports said.

In a video posted online that purportedly captured the incident, a man, apparently a Russian naval officer, is heard repeatedly urging the New Star to halt.

The Russian navy fired over 500 rounds to try to force the cargo ship back to port, China's state-controlled Global Times newspaper said.

Russian news agencies said the eight surviving crew members were rescued and taken to hospital.