Russia’s Coast Guard fired on a Chinese fishing trawler during a three-hour chase on Monday, detaining its crew as well as that of another fishing boat seized at the weekend for poaching fish in Russian waters.
One Chinese fisherman fell overboard during the seizure of one of the vessels and is missing, according to Russia’s Coast Guard. The other 36 sailors are being detained in Russia.
In a sign that Beijing is taking the incident seriously, conciliatory remarks by a Chinese consular official in the Russian border town of Khabarovsk were swiftly disavowed by Beijing, according to Chinese wire services. He had said that China “would not seek to politicise the incident.”