China concerned after Russia fires on ship

[Fred Vloo]

China said Thursday it had called on Russia  to get to the bottom of a shipping incident that left seven Chinese crew  missing, but declined to comment on reports the Russian navy fired on the cargo  ship.
China has... asked the Russian side to make full efforts to search for  and rescue the missing sailors and investigate the causes of the incident,"  foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters.
An investigation is under way."
A statement posted on the website of the Chinese consulate in the eastern  Russian city of Khabarovsk said Russia had launched a search for the missing  sailors but that hopes of finding them alive were slim.
Chinese media reports said the vessel was repeatedly fired upon by the  Russian navy in Sunday's incident as it ran into trouble in rough seas and  sank.
However, that was after the Sierra Leone-flagged, China-owned vessel New  Star had earlier fled the Russian port of Nakhodka where it had been  sequestered for alleged smuggling, Russian and China media reports said.
Jiang declined to address the alleged smuggling or reports the ship was  fired on.
Russian officials said the ship had 10 Chinese crew and six Indonesians on  board. Chinese media said eight people were rescued while one Indonesian also  was missing.
In a video posted online that purportedly captured the incident, a man,  apparently a Russian naval officer, is heard repeatedly urging the New Star to  halt.
Meanwhile, two vessels are seen in the distance, one apparently firing at  the other.
The captain of the New Star was repeatedly asked to stop through radio  communication, flares, a flag and warning shots. But the foreign ship did not  stop," Alexander Selentsov, a prosecuting official in the eastern Russian city  of Vladivostok, told the Interfax news agency.
Selentsov said a Russian investigation had been launched.
The Russian navy fired over 500 rounds to try to force the cargo ship back  to port, China's state-controlled Global Times newspaper said.
Russia's Kommersant newspaper said the eight survivours who were rescued  blamed the gunfire for the ship's problems rather than the bad weather.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=6be_1234970614
Sorry, just found this earlier report: http://www.shipspotting.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=6354&forum=2#forumpost34572
Trying to find the other video ;-(
Found it: http://www.china.org.cn/international/2009-02/19/content_17300577_2.htm