China has begun building a school on Phu Lam (Woody) Island in Viet Nam’s Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago in the East Viet Nam Sea, Beijing’s official news agency Xinhua reported on Saturday.

The school will serve about 40 children whose parents work there and the illegal construction will cost about 36 million yuan (US$5.8 million) and take a year and a half, according to the agency.

China established so-called Sansha City on Phu Lam Island in July 2012 to unlawfully administer the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagos of Viet Nam despite strong opposition from Ha Noi and the international community.

On Friday, Viet Nam opposed China over Beijing’s illegal deployment of drilling rig Haiyang Shiyou 981 to Vietnamese waters in the East Viet Nam Sea at the 24^th meeting of States-Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in New York.

Over the last one month and a half, China has deployed a huge number of vessels, including big iron-clad fishing boats, to guard the rig and attack Vietnamese vessels, including fishing boats.

China’s large iron-clad fishing boats have rammed a dozen Vietnamese fishing boats in the waters, injuring several fishermen, and damaging their vessels.

Notably, on May 26, Chinese vessel #11209 slammed into and sank Vietnamese fishing boat DNa 90152 with ten crew members aboard. All the Vietnamese fishermen were rescued by another Vietnamese fishing boat the same day.

(Source: Tuoi Tre News)