- Target:
- China, Vietnam, ASEAN Countries, US and UN
- Region:
- Vietnam
- Website:
- bauxitevietnam.info
DECLARATION OF CONCERNED VIETNAMESE WORLDWIDE REGARDING CHINA’S CURRENT QUIET INVASION OF VIETNAM
For over two thousand years, China has pursued a policy of annexing Vietnam. The Han, the Tang, the Song, the Ming, the Yuan, and the Qing dynasties all undertook full-scale invasions of Vietnam, but Vietnam managed to eventually prevail over the invaders. However, recent events have shown that China again has undertaken a quiet but comprehensive invasion of Vietnam. The latest attempts of China to annex Vietnam involved:
1. 1974: the naked take-over of the Paracel Islands after a brief naval battle.
2. 1979: the land grabbing in the northern border region after a brief and bloody border war during which more than tens of thousands died on each side.
3. 1988: the occupation of part of the Spratly Islands after another brief naval battle.
4. Since 2007 to date: the presence of “mining” companies in the strategic highlands of Vietnam.
5. The strangling the economy of Vietnam.
The Paracel and Spratly Islands in the East Sea have been part of Vietnam for centuries. We have legal and historical documents as well as maps to prove our claims. Only very recently when vast oil and gas deposits were discovered in the area did the Chinese brazenly claim the islands were theirs under the absurd doctrine of Cow’s Tongue (the Paracel and Spratly Islands are like the tongue of a cow extending from their Hainan Island!), and subsequently sent their naval forces to the area to back up their expansionist claims.
Recently China has unilaterally and brazenty ordered the stopping of fishing activities in the whole of the East Sea within the territories of Vietnam. Chinese naval forces have increased their bullying and unlawful acts of aggression against Vietnamese fishermen in the East Sea. There have been numerous incidents in which Vietnamese fishing boats have been rammed, shot at and quite a number of Vietnamese fishermen were either killed from gunshot wounds or detained for large amount of ransom money. (http://www.rfa.org/vietnamese/in_depth/SouthChinaSea-blood-and-tears-TVan-07172009113941.htmlhttp://www.rfa.org/vietnamese/VietnameseNews/vietnamnews/Vietnamese-fishermen-detained-by%20chinese-sea-patrol-forced-to-pay-fine-insistently-07182009121523.html)(http://mil.news.sina.com.cn/2009-07-02/0844557400.html). (http://www.rfa.org/vietnamese/in_depth/another-Vietnamese-fisherboat-hit-by-a-strange-boat-on-ChinaSea-07152009103037.html)(http://www.rfa.org/vietnamese/in_depth/9-fishermen-from-ship-hitting-in-south-china-sea-QNhu-07172009143806.html)
China’s territorial designs on Vietnam did not stop at sea. China forced the current Vietnamese government to give up land at the border and set up new demarcation posts to the advantage of China.
(http://www.rfa.org/vietnamese/in_depth/Vietnam-China-a-long-standing-grievances-historical-MLam-07022009133546.html).
China also forced Vietnam to permit Chinese mining companies to move into the strategic highlands in Central Vietnam. These mining companies ostensibly do mining work but with a many thousand of young and muscular Chinese they have continuously brought into the area and behind what they are building even are off limits to the Vietnamese authorities. Their presence in the vast area of the High Land region under the smoke screen of mining has been warned by Vietnamese military high ranking figures as extremely dangerous for the safety of Vietnam.
China further is pursuing an economic policy which is designed to strangle the economy of Vietnam. On top of flooding Vietnam with inexpensive consumer products, China has encouraged a massive smuggling program into Vietnam at the northern border. The result is that the Vietnamese business production has been weakened in the last few years. In addition, with the aim of destroying the rice-production capability of Vietnam in the south, China has plans for building a total of eight dams in the Langcang Jiang, the upstream of the Mekong River, which is located in Yunnan, China. Four of these dams have been completed. These dams have altered the natural flow of the river and resulted in the loss of 75% of fish population in the basin area. The rice production and agricultural activities in the Mekong Delta---the world’s second largest rice-producing region--- are being adversely affected.
We demand China:
1. Stop all expansionist and unlawful acts of aggression in the East Sea.
2. Release immediately all detained Vietnamese fishermen and their boats and repay in full the costs for the damages to the boats and the values of the confiscated catches.
3. Stop building more dams on the Langcang Jiang. Pre-treat industrial discharge and preserve water quality in the Langcang Jiang in order to prevent the Mekong River from becoming an open sewer system for the Yunnan mining industrial giants.
4. Resolve land, islands, sea disputes with Vietnam through diplomacy and arbitration, not though acts of bullying of a nuclear-armed power. These acts only increase the instability not only in the East Sea but also the whole Southeast Asia which is in need of political stability for economic development.
We, the undersigned, the concerned Vietnamese worldwide are reacting to the events in the East Sea, in the highlands and China-Vietnam border areas with increasing concern and asking the support of the international community in our struggle to avoid being assimilated as what have happened in Xinjiang and Tibet. We are calling to the attention of the world of China’s current quiet invasion of Vietnam and pointing out China’s long-standing policy of annexation of Vietnam.
We are asking Human Rights organizations to look into the current abuses and killings of the unarmed Vietnamese fishermen by the Chinese naval forces, and vigorously demand China to respect basic human rights with regard to the Vietnamese fishermen they are detaining unlawfully and holding for ransoms.
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The Save Vietnam from China's Expansionism petition to China, Vietnam, ASEAN Countries, US and UN was written by Long Pham and is in the category International Affairs at GoPetition.