NOT AN INCH OF MOTHERLAND

In the last few weeks, protests are growing in Vietnam as well as in the overseas Vietnamese communities in Western countries over the new borderlines between China and Vietnam. People in Vietnam have been aware of the concession long time ago. But this seems to be the right time for Vietnamese patriots to voice their anger over concessions of their soil which their forefathers had been fighting and shedding blood to defend every inch of it.

Previously, there had been rumors about secret concession of border land to China by the Politburo. In the late 1950's and early 1960's, China granted Hanoi aids to renovate the railways which cross the border line into China. It was rumored that taking advantage of this railroad reconstruction, the Communist Chinese arbitrarily moved the China Gate, the site on the common border with checkpoints of the two nations built next to each other, some 300 meters into Vietnam territory.

However, nobody in the North dared to complain or vent the anger regarding the silent deal. But now the people become more active and defiant. News about the negotiations with China over the border prompted their concerns.

On December 27, 2000, a news report was released on state-controlled newspapers, confirmed that "A border post was officially installed at the Mong Cai-Dongxing international border gate on the Vietnam-China border line at 10:22 on December 27. The boundary post No 1369 of Vietnam became the first post installed under the Vietnam-China Land Border Agreement, which was signed on December 30, 1999 and came into effect as from July of 2000." This agreement is about the border lines on land.

The installation of the post was to implement this agreement. There are more than 3,000 posts to be installed along the border of nearly 1,200 kilometers.

Another agreement of similar contents were signed on December 25, 2000 regarding the borderline on the Gulf of Tonkin, in the waters East of North Vietnam and West of Hainan Island.

But what are in the agreements have never been made public. Though the 1999 agreement was passed by the National Assembly, only a handful of Communist top leaders in the N.A. Standing Committee are allowed to know the full text. Other N.A. members only voted as instructed by the Party Committee in the N.A. without any knowledge of the pact in detail.

The news sparked fiery reactions from many intellects and dissidents in Vietnam, among them are a lot of Party members. Vietnamese émigrés around the world are raising protests and harshly criticize the agreements they call "selling out the motherland."

To the bitter criticism from people of all walks of life, the Hanoi leaders have so far kept silent. An article on Nhan Dan, the official organ of the VCP, simply reported:

"The installation of the 2-metre high boundary post marked a milestone in the relationship between Vietnam and China, opening a new historical stage of a common borderline of long-lasting peace and prosperous friendship between Vietnam and China."

The great many of Vietnamese don't think so. A veteran party member, Mr. Do Ngoc Son in Hai Phong (NVN) sent an open letter to the Communist leaders complaining that Hanoi had conceded too much to the Chinese. He demanded that the National Assembly openly discuss the matter, and not to ratify the agreement if it brings about inequalities unfavorable to Vietnam. So far, Hanoi government informed its people only few general lines about the agreements without going into details. Hanoi simply published editorials explaining that the agreements are "necessary to solidify peace and stability in the region."

Late in December, there were 26 typical democracy activists who also called for making the issue public.

They raised a question of whether or not 720 square kilometers of Vietnam soil were yielded to Beijing?

Protesters claim that according to the Dec-25-2000 agreement, Vietnam lost 10 percent of its territorial waters to the Chinese. This area is extremely rich in resources of sea products, oil and tourism. The activists included retired General Tran Do, Nguyen Thanh Giang, Hoang Minh Chinh, retired Colonel Pham Que Duong, lawyer Le Chi Quang who also suggested an open hearing where the Party leaders are to explain what, how and why they have secretly agreed with the Chinese.

According to further complaints, the old China Gate is now moved 4 kilometers southward into Vietnam - some source said 2 kilometers. In the military aspect, ex-North-Vietnam Colonel Bui Tin, one of the famous dissidents who defected the Communist Party in 1991, said that many dominant high grounds of very important military value along the border of 6 Vietnam provinces, are now under Chinese control. In an interview with Radio France International (RFI), Bui Tin alleged that the agreements were negotiated in secret. Even the Party Central Committee members not serving the Politburo, have never known the articles in details.

He also disclosed that according to his source, in the two summit talks in 1999 and 2000, Chinese top leader Jiang Zemin applied high pressure to compel VCP leaders to sign the agreement, at the end of 1999 and 2000.

If the Party General Secretary made the final decisions, the agreements could be considered invalid. The state president is fully competent to do, but if he signs an agreement without the national assembly and the public being fully informed, it could be abolished by the legislative or the supreme court in a true democracy.

According to the young Hanoi lawyer Le Chi Quang in his letter released a few months ago, on June 19, 2000 the National Assembly announced its resolution ratifying the agreement signed on December 30, 1999 but the one signed on December 25, 2000 is not. So Le Chi Quang along with other dissidents and many common citizens are focusing their attack on the latter. They sent letters to members of the N.A.

and other Communist leaders, even overseas Vietnamese, persuading the N.A. members not to approve the pending agreement.

Though Hanoi leaders have not made the agreements public, they were directing their subordinate officials to implement certain clauses of the agreements, the ceremony to install the border post at Mong Cay was one.

The protesters' strongest argument is based on the accord between the French colonial authorities representing Vietnam as their colony and China signed on June 26, 1887. Under this accord, the meridian of 108.03 degrees longitude is the basic borderline between the two countries. People believe that in recent negotiations and the agreements, the oldest and legal 1887 accord with China have been disregarded, even not referred to. This deliberate ignorance of the accord is a concrete evidence of Hanoi leaders' crime of "selling out the motherland" for the ruling power and stability of their Vietnam Communist Party.

Under the French-Chinese 1887 accord, Vietnam has 60 percent of the Gulf of Tonkin as territorial waters. Under the new agreement, Vietnam has only 53 percent. The concession of 7 percent is about 8,200 square kilometers.

This is not the first time that Hanoi government has given up national soil to the Chinese. In 1958, the late Prime Minister Pham Van Dong, obviously acting by order of Ho Chi Minh, officially endorsed the Chinese claim to the possession of the Paracel Islands and the Spratly as well. When Red Chinese Navy defeated South Vietnamese naval task force defending the Paracel Islands and occupied them in January 1974, Hanoi kept the mouth completely shut.

The shameful territorial concession to the Chinese hurts every Vietnamese. The ancient Vietnamese, kings, mandarins and common people had been defending every inch of their beloved country at any cost. Now the protesters are having good reasons to fiercely condemn the Communist Party leaders for having seriously betrayed the Vietnamese people and their nation when they signed such shameful agreements.

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