WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th April, 2020) The United States is seriously concerned over reports that China sank a Vietnamese fishing boat amid a military buildup in the South China Sea in which Beijing appears to be taking advantage of the coronavirus pandemic to boost its ownership claim to the entire waterway, the State Department said in a press release on Monday.
"We are seriously concerned by reports of the PRC's sinking of a Vietnamese fishing vessel in the vicinity of the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea," the release said. "Since the outbreak of the global pandemic, Beijing has also announced new 'research stations' on military bases it built on Fiery Cross Reef and Subi Reef, and landed special military aircraft on Fiery Cross Reef. The PRC has also continued to deploy maritime militia around the Spratly Islands."
