It may be fuelling online rage and diplomatic intrigue, but recently released YouTube footage showing a Vietnamese ship harassing a Chinese Marine Surveillance vessel in the South China Sea is raising more questions than answers.
As nationalists in each country trade fierce barbs online, regional envoys and military analysts are trying to confirm key details about the incident. So far, Hanoi and Beijing are saying nothing.
'We've been hearing for a while from the Vietnamese side that there've been more cases of collisions and harassment than have been reported,' said one Hanoi-based Asian military attach? 'But we can't be sure when this actually happened. From the vessels on each side, it does appear to be very recent.'
The footage shows a ship from Vietnam's recently formed Marine Police chasing and catching up to a vessel from China's expanding Marine Surveillance fleet. The Vietnamese ship then rams the Chinese vessel and remains alongside but there are no apparent exchanges between the crew.
The footage comes amid a flurry of recent Sino-Vietnamese diplomacy to ease tensions over the disputed South China Sea. A series of anti-China protests in Hanoi and several stand-offs over oil exploration off southern Vietnam earlier this year saw the relationship - fraternal yet plagued by historical suspicion - plunge to its lowest point in 20 years.
A senior US naval official warned in Hong Kong this week he feared 'brush-ups' over regional disputes could trigger dangerous 'tactical miscalculations'.
Singapore-based strategic scholar Ian Storey warned that the footage 'raises important questions about the Sino-Vietnamese dispute in the South China Sea'.
