Pirates Attack Chinese Vessels And Kill Crews In Mekong After Chinese Refuse To Pay Bribes

by Monica Davis

The Golden Triangle between Thailand, Laos and Myanmar remains a dangerous place, particularly Chinese shipping vessels. After a recent hijacking of a Chinese ship and massacre of its crew, China is  reportedly considering sending armed boats down the river, and into foreign territorial waters.

China is considering sending armed police boats down the Mekong River after attacks on Chinese vessels in Thailand’s part of the river, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported, a move that comes amid regional worries over China’s growing influence in the region.

Unlike current protection of China’s commercial vessels in international waters, for example off the coast of Africa, the Mekong plan would mean an.  armed Chinese presence on its smaller neighbors’ territories, potentially opening a new strategic frontier for China in Southeast Asia. more

News reports say 10 Chinese sailirs were murdered in early October, after the ship was hijacked.China  is considering sending police boats down the Mekong, into the Golden Triangle..

2011 October 5th noon, a Chinese ship (Hua Ping) and a Burmese/Myanma ship (Yu Xing 8) were hijacked by an unknown armed group. The over 10 crew members of both ships were Chinese sailors.

The location of the hijacking was the Golden Triangle between the borders of the three countries of Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar.

The unidentified armed group used guns to force the Chinese crew to increase speed sailing towards Thailand.

When the ship sailed into Thailand, they encountered Thai water police and both sides exchanged fire.

Afterward the Thai water police boarded these two ships. Apart from discovering a male body in the mess hall of the Yu Xing 8, there was no one else on the ships but traces of blood were everywhere.

Found on the ship were over 900,000 tablets of illegal drugs.

The Chinese crew were all missing.

Now bodies have been found on the Mekong River, with one verified to be the captain of the Hua Ping, with another being a sailor for the Yu Xing 8. MORE

Piracy on the Mekong, while allegedly rare, does happen.  In April five armed riverboats full of pirates stopped three vessels in the river.

Myanmar army troops have recovered three Chinese boats and their crews who had been seized in a rare case of river piracy, Myanmar’s state media reported Saturday.

The accounts of the incident on the Mekong River in the Golden Triangle region, where the borders of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand meet, did not identify the armed pirates or give a reason for their actions.

The state-owned Myanma Ahlin daily reported that five motorboats carrying armed men stopped the three privately owned vessels on April 2 as they were collecting decorative stones in the Mekong River near Tachileik township. Initially, the captains of two of the boats were taken away, but then the boats were seized and the third captain was abducted, with the 34 crew members kept hostage aboard the captured vessels. MORE

According to one source, the pirates attacked the Chinese shipping vessel because the Chinese haven’t been bribing the pirates.