China must stop violating Vietnam’s sovereignty and immediately withdraw all ships out of Vietnamese exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the East Sea, which is referred to as the South China Sea in Vietnam, Spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang of the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) has demanded. 
Spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang of Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Photo: Nhat Minh
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On August 16, the MOFA reported that Chinese survey ship Haiyang Dizhi 8 and escorts, which encroached Vietnamese waters in early July, returned to Vietnam’s Bai Tu Chinh (Vanguard Bank) which lies entirely within the country’s EEZ and continental shelf.
Spokeswoman Hang once again affirmed “the area which the Chinese ships are deploying is totally within Vietnamese territorial waters defined in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) 1982.”
“Vietnam's maritime authorities are exerting all rights to protect Vietnam’s sovereignty, sovereignty rights and jurisdiction which are in line with Vietnamese and international law,” Hang emphasized.
“Vietnam calls for all related parties to actively contribute to maintaining peace, security, stability, and freedom of maritime and air navigation in the South China Sea in accordance with international law, especially the UNCLOS 1982,” Hang stressed.
According to data obtained by the Center for Strategic Studies (CSIS), earlier in July, Chinese vessels engaged in aggressive maneuvers near Vietnamese vessels servicing a Japanese-owned oil rig some 370 km southeast of Vietnam.
