China calls on Russia to explain cargo ship sinking(500 rounds into suspected smuggling ship)

Reuters ^ | 02/19/09 | James Pomfret and Ben Blanchard

[TigerLikesRooster]

China calls on Russia to explain cargo ship sinking

59 mins ago

China called on Russia on Thursday to explain how a Chinese cargo ship sank in Russian waters after reports it was fired on by the Russian military.

Seven Chinese sailors were missing after the "New Star" sank on Saturday in stormy seas off Vladivostok and after a Russian warship shot at least 500 rounds into it, the official China Daily newspaper said, quoting a Chinese-language paper which in turned quoted a Russian newspaper.

The "New Star" was held at the Russian port of Nakhodka earlier this month, suspected of involvement in smuggling, before it left without permission last week, the China Daily said.

"China has already made representations to the Russian side," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a news conference.

"We hope they continue with the search and rescue operations for the missing sailors and clarify the reason (for the incident) as soon as possible."

[Spktyr]

On paper, yes - they have four CIWS-equivalents per side.

In practice, probably not, as they apparently can’t detect and shoot down something as slow as an RPG.

[Spktyr]

The year was 1979 - and all we know is that someone detonated *something* nuclear.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/israel/nuke-test.htm

http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Safrica/Vela.html

[Deaf Smith]

The Carter Administration sure backpedaled on the incident and came up with something else.

"There was dust on the lens" so to speak.

[MightyTruth]

Before anyone even try to blame the captain to leave the russkie dock without permission:

Go ask anyone who get some personal experience in doing business with Russians, you will know how corrupt those russikes are, basically their business is run by mafia and corrupt politicans, I bet the cause of this business dispute is most likely caused by the un-controlled corruption of the russian side, I guess the russians just try to force you to bribe them anyway.

And dont forget its not cheap if your ship is sitting in dock everyday due to the rent, not to mention the loss caused by losing business opportunties for the period of time, and many maritime cases can take as long as 2 years due to the bureaucracy of the admiralty court, thats why many ship-owners, even if they could win the case in the end, still would rather prefer abandon their ships all-together than paying rent and wasting their time in the court.

[Spktyr]

Yeah, typical Dem administration - something happens elsewhere that makes you look bad? Claim its something else!

Nevermind that the sensors have never failed that way before or since, that they’ve been accurate before and after, and that there’s *plenty* of evidence that it was nuclear/atomic....