THE appearance of a Chinese government survey ship near Malaysia’s sea border in the South China Sea has fuelled suspicions that China is taking advantage of the pandemic to assert its presence in the territory, Reuters reports.

A Malaysian coastguard vessel is said to be trailing the Haiyang Dizhi 8, which appeared today to have started a mapping exercise in waters about 350km off the coasts of Malaysia and Brunei, according to data from the Marine Traffic shipping tracking website.

That would place the Chinese vessel just north of Malaysia’s exclusive economic zone.

The report, quoting unnamed maritime sources, said Malaysian coastguard vessel KM Pekan was shadowing the Haiyang Dizhi 8 while the Malaysian navy was watching the situation.

The Chinese ship appeared on Tuesday about 150km off Vietnam’s coast, data from Marine Traffic show.

At one time, it was accompanied by up to seven Chinese coastguard ships which have since departed.

This follows the sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat near islands in the disputed waters this month,  which sparked accusations that China had violated the sovereignty of Vietnam and threatened the lives of its fishermen.

The United States responded by sending an aircraft carrier to the Vietnamese port of Danang as an indication that it was “seriously concerned” about China’s reported sinking of the vessel.

Yesterday an official from China’s Foreign Ministry said the Haiyang Dizhi 8 was in the South China Sea to do survey work and that the United States was smearing Beijing’s name.   

China lays claim to a large chunk of the South China Sea within a vaguely defined “nine-dash line”, including expanses in the south that are also claimed by Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei.

Malaysia, Brunei and China did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. – April 16, 2020.