The 10 fishermen were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars' worth of fish and equipment on Sunday off the Paracel Islands -- an archipelago in the resource-rich waterway claimed by China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei.
Vietnam "resolutely protests the brutal behaviour of Chinese law enforcement forces against Vietnamese fishermen and fishing vessels operating in the Hoang Sa archipelago of Vietnam", foreign ministry spokesperson Vietnam Pham Thu Hang said in a statement, using the Vietnamese term for the Paracel Islands.
"The above actions of Chinese law enforcement forces seriously violated Vietnam's sovereignty" over the archipelago, the statement said.
Four of the Vietnamese crew were taken to hospital on Monday after arriving at Quang Ngai port, according to the state-run Tien Phong newspaper, which said the men were attacked by around 40 people for three hours.
"Wearing chequered clothes, they cruelly beat us with iron bars," captain Nguyen Thanh Bien was quoted as saying, adding that he fell unconscious for around an hour after the attack.
Footage on Tien Phong's website showed the fishers being taken from their boat on stretchers. One had a broken leg and two suffered broken arms, the report said.
Captain Bien told authorities that around $20,000 worth of equipment and fish had been stolen in the attack.
- 'Indisputable sovereignty' -
A spokesperson for Beijing's foreign ministry told AFP the "reports in question are not in line with the facts", but acknowledged an incident had taken place.
"China has indisputable sovereignty over the Xisha Islands and their adjacent waters," the spokesperson said, using the Chinese name for the Paracel Islands.
"When Vietnamese fishing boats illegally fished in the relevant waters of the Xisha Islands without permission from the Chinese Government, the relevant Chinese authorities took measures to stop them in accordance with the law," they said.
"The operation at the scene was carried out in a professional and restrained manner, without any personnel being injured."
The foreign ministry in Vietnam said the attack had caused injuries, threatened lives and caused property damage to the fishers.
It said it had "sternly communicated with the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi, strongly protesting the above-mentioned actions of Chinese law enforcement forces".
It "demanded that China fully respect Vietnam's sovereignty over the Hoang Sa archipelago, promptly investigate and inform the Vietnamese side of the results, and not repeat similar actions".
In a separate incident on Sunday, the Tien Phong newspaper said another Vietnamese fishing boat in the Paracels was robbed of up to $12,200 worth of equipment and fish.
Beijing claims almost the entirety of the South China Sea, a waterway of immense strategic importance through which trillions of dollars in trade transits every year.
There are rival claims to parts of the sea from neighbouring countries, including Vietnam, but China has become increasingly aggressive in asserting its claims.
The incident comes several weeks after Chinese army Lieutenant General He Lei said China "will resolutely crush any foreign hostile encroachment on China's territorial, sovereign and maritime rights and interests".
He made the statement on the sidelines of a defence forum in Beijing following a series of high-profile confrontations with Philippine ships in the waters.
bur-aph-oho/pbt
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