Vietnam anti-China activists mark 1979 border war

HANOI, Vietnam – Vietnamese activists on Sunday, February 16, marked the 35th anniversary of a bloody border war with China, chanting slogans, patriotic songs and laying flowers at a temple in central Hanoi.

The two communist countries are locked in long-standing territorial disputes over the Paracel and Spratly islands, and often trade diplomatic barbs over oil exploration and fishing rights in the contested waters.

Beijing’s increasingly assertive stance in the South China Sea has stoked public anger in Vietnam and given way to rare protests in the authoritarian country – which are sometimes allowed to go ahead and other times forcefully broken up.

China invaded Vietnam’s northernmost provinces in February 1979, angered by Vietnam’s ouster of the Beijing-backed Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia.

The short but bloody conflict claimed tens of thousands of lives on both sides and ended with Chinese forces withdrawing and both Hanoi and Beijing claiming victory.

Vietnamese troops remained in Cambodia until 1989.

Not celebrated?

Although Vietnam fetes its military victories over the French and American armies, it has not arranged any official events to mark the China border war – much to the chagrin of veterans and activists.

“Vietnamese leaders may have received pressure from China, so they don’t want to talk about that war. They seem to want to deny the past,” said Nguyen Trong Vinh, a former Vietnamese ambassador to China told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

On Sunday, February 16, around 100 activists tried to lay flowers at a statue of Ly Thai To – the founder of Hanoi and a nationalist figurehead – in the center of the capital.

But dozens of people had been at the monument since early morning, playing loud music and dancing, which prevented the protesters from holding their planned ceremony – in what activists said was a counter protest.

“It was deliberate… they (authorities) hired many people,” economist Nguyen Quang A told AFP at the protest.

Protestors, wearing red headbands and carrying white roses with black ribbons saying “the people will never forget,” then walked around the central Hoan Kiem lake.

They laid their flowers and made brief speeches at the Ngoc Son Temple – a popular tourist destination – before peacefully dispersing.

Plain clothed and uniformed police closely monitored the event but did not make any arrests.

There has been some coverage in Vietnam’s tightly controlled state media of the 35th anniversary of the China war but no reports on Sunday’s protest.

Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to a request for comment. – Rappler.com