At around 6 a.m. on Thursday the crew of the boat from Ly Son island of Quang Ngai Province was fishing off Truong Sa (Spratly) Islands in what Vietnam calls the East Sea when they saw the 32 Chinese fishermen on five lifeboats after their vessel encountered rough seas and sank.

The Vietnamese took them on board, provided them with food and reported to Vietnamese authorities, Nguyen Quoc Chinh, head of the fisheries trade union in Quang Ngai, said.

Around noon the same day, a Chinese rescue ship came to pick up the stranded fishermen, who were in good condition.

On June 10, a Vietnamese fishing vessel rescued 22 Filipino fishermen who said their vessel had been rammed and sunk by a Chinese vessel near Reed Bank in the Spratly Archipelago the previous night.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, including waters close to Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam. It has also built artificial islands and turned them into garrisons.