Reports have emerged that the Russian Navy sank a Chinese cargo vessel impounded at the port of Nakhodka for alleged smuggling. After the Chinese ship, named New Star, left port without permission, a Russian Navy cruiser chased the ship and fired 500 rounds into the vessel causing it to sink.

Sixteen sailors from the ship boarded two lifeboats but only one was successfully rescued by the Russian Navy.  The other eight men, three Chinese and five Indonesians, aboard the remaining lifeboat were lost at sea.

(If you read the mix of these two reports, the numbers differ.  Other reports say it was the Russian Coast Guard and not the Russian Navy that sank the ship.)

Chinese hackers have protested the sinking of the vessel by defacing the website of the Russian Consulate in Shanghai.  At this time, the consulate’s website is still down: