4,000 Chinese individuals leave Vietnam

Beijing: Almost 2,000 Chinese citizens were evacuated from riot-hit Vietnam by sea on Monday, with another two ships following, as Hanoi stifled fresh protests over a territorial dispute and foreign investors counted the cost.

The passenger vessels Wuzhishan and Tongguling left the central Vietnamese port of Vung Ang, each with more than 900 evacuees on board, China’s official news agency Xinhua reported.

They were among four Chinese ships, each with a capacity of about 1,000 people sent to Vietnam, Xinhua said, with another two on standby. Workers voiced relief as they boarded the vessels, the agency reported, with some declaring: “Finally home.”

Relations between communist neighbours Vietnam and China have plummeted following Beijing’s move earlier this month to send a deep-water drilling rig into contested waters in the South China Sea.

Meanwhile, China on Monday lashed out at the Asean for backing Vietnam over tensions in the South China Sea.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei sharply criticised Asean Secretary-General Le Luong Minh’s comments that China has encroached upon Vietnam’s territorial integrity and violated the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea.

He said that the Asean should not take sides in the South China Sea row