Seven Chinese sailors are missing after a Chinese cargo ship sank in Russian waters near Japan on Saturday, the Foreign Ministry said yesterday."Some of the 10 Chinese sailors on board were saved but seven are still missing after the ship sank off the waters of Vladivostok," said a statement on its website.The ministry didn't mention the cause of the incident, saying rescue efforts and an investigation into the incident are ongoing. But the Global Times, a Chinese language newspaper based in Beijing, said yesterday the ship was fired on by the Russian navy before it sank.The news is first reported in a Russian newspaper.New Star, the cargo ship was sequestered  at the Russian port of Nakhodka earlier this month for alleged(,)smuggling.It left the port not far from the Sino-Russian border without permission from Russian authorities last Thursday and was chased  by a cruiser,the newspaper said.Later, the warship shot at least 500 rounds onto the ship and forced it to sail back toward the port in force 6 winds.However, the Chinese ship started to sink on the way According to the report,in a period of almost 24 hours,Russian navy officers and soldiers onboard the cruiser watched the sinking boat and did not make any response to the cries for help from the crewmen.In the end, 16 sailors onboard New Star got on two lifeboats. The Russian sailors managed to save one boat carrying eight people,while the other was engulfed in the waves.Of all the sailors onboard 6 came from Indonesia. The Russian News Agency reported the incident yesterday and said the coast guard just found an empty boat in a three-day search.It also said that bad weather was the reason behind the accident. According to the International Maritime Organization, the owner of New Star is a shipping company of Zhejiang, while the operator is a company based in prefix = st1 /Guangzhou. It can be inferred that--------.
the other 8 sailors may have died the Russian navy officers and soldiers were willing to help the sailors the Russian port was far from China the Chinese ship was not very good