|
FINANCIAL TIMES
Anti-Chinese protesters take to Vietnam’s streets
Demonstrations target plans for special economic zones thought
to favour Beijing John
Reed
Protesters took to the streets in Vietnam on Sunday in rare
demonstrations against special economic zones some fear will favour
Chinese investors and a planned cyber security law that activists claim
will stifle dissent. Film
and photos posted on social media showed large protests in Hanoi, the
capital, Ho Chi Minh City and other Vietnamese cities. Some of the
protesters carried anti-Chinese banners or chanted slogans such as “No
China” or “China get out”.
Vietnam plans to open three special economic zones in the country’s
north, centre, and southern Phu Quoc island where foreign investors will
be offered generous incentives and be allowed to lease land for up to 99
years. While
the draft legislation does not single out China, Vietnamese who oppose
it have claimed it will allow government officials to give preferential
treatment to Chinese investors.
Anti-Chinese sentiment runs high in Vietnam, which is at odds with
Beijing about overlapping claims in the South China Sea and which fought
a brief war with the country in 1979.
Sunday’s protests were thought to be the largest since the
demonstrations that followed a 2016 toxic waste spill by the Taiwanese
company Formosa Plastics at a steel plant, which contaminated more than
200km of Vietnam’s coastline. “The
99-year land lease law will directly affect our sovereignty and allow us
to fall to China,” Duong Dai Trieu Lam, who attended a protest in Ho Chi
Minh City, told the Financial Times in a text message. “Our people could
possibly lose 4,000 years of history and we could disappear from the
world map.” Mr Lam
said that “thousands” of people participated in the protest he attended
in the city’s central District 1, and at a second one in Tan Binh
district, where its international airport is located. He said he saw
police arrest dozens of participants. A
second man said he attended the protest in Ho Chi Minh’s District One,
in which he estimated about 2,000 people took part. He said that at
least 10 of his friends were arrested. “When
the Vietnamese government fail to act in favour of the nation and its
people, then we Vietnamese will stand up to protect our country,” Nguyen
Manh Hien said in a text message.
Vietnam’s foreign ministry could not be immediately reached for comment
on Sunday. Protests were also reported in the southern city of Nha Trang
and in Nghe An, south of Hanoi. In the
face of public opposition last week, Vietnam’s government said that it
might postpone parliamentary votes on the law on special economic zones.
The cyber security law, which has drawn protests from Vietnamese
activists and foreign technology companies and criticism from the US, is
due to be discussed in the legislature later this week.
Vietnam is a one-party state where authorities have jailed dozens of
dissidents, including bloggers, for voicing their views in recent years.
However, unlike in communist-ruled China, Facebook is allowed to operate
and many activists use the social media site to vent complaints against
unpopular policies. |