Military Clashes in the South China Sea

A partial listing

Date	Countries	Military Action
1976	China, Vietnam	Chinese seize Paracel Islands from Vietnam
1988	China, Vietnam	Chinese and Vietnamese navies clash at Johnson Reef in the Spratly Islands. Several Vietnamese boats are sunk and over 70 sailors killed.
1992	China, Vietnam	Vietnam accuses China of drilling for oil in Vietnamese waters in the Gulf of Tonkin, and accuses China of landing troops on Da Luc Reef. China seizes almost 20 Vietnamese cargo ships transporting goods from Hong Kong from June - September.
1994	China, Vietnam	China and Vietnam have naval confrontations within Vietnam's internationally recognized territorial waters over oil exploration blocks 133, 134, and 135. Chinese claim area as part of their Wan' Bei-21 (WAB-21) block.
1995	China, Philippines	China occupies Philippine-claimed Mischief Reef. Philippine military evicts the Chinese in March and destroys Chinese markers.
1995	Taiwan, Vietnam	Taiwanese artillery fire on Vietnamese supply ship.
1996	China, Philippines	In January, three Chinese vessels engage in a 90-minute gun battle with a Philippine navy gunboat near Campones Island.
1997	China, Philippines	The Philippine navy orders a Chinese speedboat and two fishing boats to leave Scarborough Shoal in April; Philippine fishermen remove Chinese markers and raise their flag. China sends three warships to survey Philippine-occupied Panata and Kota Islands
1998	China, Philippines	In January, the Philippine navy arrests Chinese fishermen off Scarborough Shoal.
1998	Philippines, Vietnam	In January, Vietnamese soldiers fire on a Philippine fishing boat near Tennent (Pigeon) Reef.

On February 25, 2011, a frigate from China's navy fired shots at 3 fishing boats from the Philippines.

On March 2, 2011, the Government of the Philippines reported that two patrol boats from China attempted to ram one of its surveillance ships.

On May 26, 2011, a maritime security vessel from China cut the cables of an exploration ship from Vietnam, the Binh Minh, in the South China Sea in waters near Cam Ranh Bay in the exclusive economic zone of Vietnam.

On May 31, 2011, three Chinese military vessels used guns to threaten the crews of four Vietnamese fishing boats while they were fishing in the waters of the Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago.

On June 3, 2011, Vietnam's Foreign Ministry released a statement that ``Vietnam is resolutely opposed to these acts by China that seriously violated the sovereign and jurisdiction rights of Viet Nam to its continental shelf and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)''.

On June 9, 2011, three vessels from China, including one fishing vessel and two maritime security vessels, ran into and disabled the cables of another exploration ship from Vietnam, the Viking 2, in the exclusive economic zone of Vietnam.

On July 22, 2011, an Indian naval vessel, sailing about 45 nautical miles off the coast of Vietnam, was warned by a Chinese naval vessel that it was allegedly violating Chinese territorial waters.

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