Beijing in Fresh Sea Row With Hanoi

China became embroiled in a fresh South China Sea dispute, rejecting allegations from Vietnam on Thursday that Chinese forces assaulted and tried to rob Vietnamese fishermen while blocking them from seeking refuge during a storm.

The angry exchanges between Beijing and Hanoi came a day after Forum Energy , a U.K.-based company, vowed to continue to explore for oil in a section of the South China Sea under an agreement with the Philippines, despite Chinese territorial claims to the area.

On Monday, Philippine Energy Secretary Jose Almendras said his government expected to complete in the next few months a review of offers to undertake exploration in 15 petroleum blocks in the South China Sea, including some in areas disputed by Beijing.

ONGC Videsh, a subsidiary of India's main state oil company Oil & Natural Gas Corp., has also said that it plans to start drilling this year under a deal with Vietnam in an area also claimed by China—defying repeated warnings from Beijing not to do so.

The developments set the stage for another tense standoff this year over the potentially energy-rich South China Sea, which is also partly claimed by Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan and regarded by U.S. officials as one of the biggest potential military flash points in the region.

China was involved in a series of maritime incidents and diplomatic exchanges with Vietnam and the Philippines last year, prompting both those countries to seek closer defense ties with the U.S., which Beijing has repeatedly warned to stay out of the dispute.

China's more assertive stance on the issue, combined with its growing military power, is one of the driving forces behind the U.S. government's decision last year to refocus its defense and foreign policy on the Asia-Pacific region after a decade of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The U.S. transferred one Coast Guard cutter to the Philippine navy last year and is transferring another this year, according to U.S. and Philippine officials.

The latest reported clash in the South China Sea occurred on Feb. 22, according to the state-run Vietnam News agency, which said China had used force to prevent 11 Vietnamese fishermen from reaching the disputed Paracel islands during a storm.

China has occupied the Paracels, which it calls the Xisha, since 1974, when Chinese troops ejected South Vietnamese forces from the islands.

The news agency said Chinese forces were reported to have assaulted the fishermen and tried to take their property in the Feb. 22 incident.

It said Vietnam had lodged a formal protest with the Chinese Embassy and quoted Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesman Luong Thanh Nghi as saying the Chinese action "seriously infringed" Vietnam's sovereignty and "gravely threatened lives and property."

Vietnam's Foreign Ministry couldn't be reached to comment.

A spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry, Hong Lei, denied the allegations, saying Chinese personnel didn't use force or board the Vietnamese ship.

He said Chinese authorities had often helped Vietnamese fishermen in "real distress" but had expelled some Vietnamese ships that were fishing illegally in waters around the Xisha, or Paracel, Islands.

Mr. Hong also repeated China's claim to "indisputable sovereignty" over the islands and their adjacent waters and urged Vietnam to better educate and regulate its fishermen.

Earlier this week, Mr. Hong also repeated China's claim to the Spratly Islands, which it calls Nansha, and warned that any unauthorized oil or gas exploration in the area would "complicate and magnify" the territorial dispute.

"Without the Chinese government's permission, any country and any company's oil and gas activity in the waters under China's jurisdiction are illegal," he said.

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi held talks in India on Thursday with his counterpart, S.M. Krishna, and agreed to launch a regular dialogue on maritime issues, said a spokesman for India's Ministry of External Affairs. The two countries also decided to hold talks in Beijing next week over their disputed land borders, an issue which is no nearer a resolution after decades of parlays and continues to hurt relations.