When Tran Hien, the 31-year-old captain of a Vietnamese fishing boat, saw a large Chinese vessel while sailing near the disputed Paracel Islands, he knew exactly what was about to happen.
Officers from China’s fisheries agency boarded his 15m boat and, with neither party able to understand the other’s language, confiscated nearly $3,000 worth of fish and equipment.
“We were in Vietnamese waters and had every right to be there but there was no way we could outrun them,” says Mr Hien of the incident, which took place at about 9am on June 14.
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