China is once again "poisoning" the atmosphere in the South China Sea.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed on July 4th that its navy had detained six Vietnamese fishermen.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said the arrested fishermen "violated the law by fishing in Chinese waters, about seven nautical miles south of Hainan Island."

Even more outrageously, Hong Lei declared: "China demands that Vietnam take necessary measures, tighten discipline, and strengthen the education of fishermen to prevent similar incidents from happening again."

On July 6, 2014, in response to questions from numerous Vietnamese and foreign reporters regarding the recent incident in which the Quang Ngai fishing vessel QNg 94912 TS and six Vietnamese fishermen were detained by China, Mr. Luong Thanh Quang, Assistant Director and Head of the Department for the Protection of Vietnamese Citizens and Legal Entities Abroad, Consular Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam, stated:

"On July 6, 2014, representatives from the Consular Department of the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs met with representatives from the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi to request that China officially inform Vietnam of the coordinates and reasons for the Chinese seizure of the Quang Ngai fishing vessel QNg 94912 TS and its six fishermen on July 3, 2014."

Previously, on July 5, 2014, the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs instructed the Vietnamese Embassy in Beijing to urgently work with Chinese authorities to verify the information and take protective measures for these fishermen.

Mr. Nguyen Ky, Chairman of the People's Committee of Pho Thanh commune, Duc Pho district, Quang Ngai province, where the six fishermen reside, said that their fishing boat was attacked and surrounded by Chinese vessels in the Gulf of Tonkin. This area is a traditional fishing ground for Vietnamese fishermen.

The BBC quoted Vietnamese sailors who witnessed the incident firsthand as saying that the seizure of the Vietnamese fishing vessel took place right in the Gulf of Tonkin fishing grounds.

This is the first time China has seized Vietnamese fishing boats and fishermen since Beijing illegally deployed the Haiyang 981 oil rig deep within Vietnam's continental shelf and exclusive economic zone.

Commenting on this latest action by China, Bloomberg quoted Professor Carl Thayer of the Australian Defence College as saying that China's recent arrest of six Vietnamese fishermen "further poisons the current atmosphere" between the two countries. It is a unilateral action in an area where Vietnam has clear sovereignty.

According to chinhphu.vn