Refugees of Rhetoric

In the rhetorical battles that have raged between Peking and Hanoi since May, the principal casualties have been the Chinese residents of Viet Nam. Caught in a crossfire of conflicting national and political interests, 160,000 refugees have already made the trek across the Vietnamese border into China's Yunnan and Kwangsi provinces. The Viet Nam government has explained the exodus by charging that Peking's embassy in Hanoi had hired agents provocateurs to roil Viet Nam's 1.2 million Hoa (ethnic Chinese) and induce them to leave the country. Hanoi produced two such alleged agents who "confessed" that they had plotted to promote "chauvinism" among the Chinese and persuade them to flee. One Radio Hanoi broadcast accused Peking of exploiting the refugee issue: "In the eyes of the Chinese authorities, the lives and property of the Chinese people in Viet Nam are only a political means, a pawn and a sacrificial lamb in their dark plot."

Dismissing Hanoi's accusations as "vile slanders and scurrilous charges," Peking answered that Viet Nam had "ostracized, persecuted and expelled Chinese residents on a mass scale." To prove that charge, government officials organized press conferences for foreign newsmen in border areas where Hoa refugees were living in improvised camps. Meanwhile, China's official propaganda machine ground out endless grim tales. An old woman from Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) recounted how all her possessions had been seized. "Not even her wardrobe, beds, stools, bowls and saucers were spared," according to one report. She was also threatened with resettlement in one of the "new economic zones" where Hanoi proposes to place 10 million city dwellers. China charges that the zone is "nothing but an expanse of wilderness without drinking water but with swarms of poisonous mosquitoes." Other refugees told of threats, harassment and confiscation of property, even though many of them had fought in the Vietnamese army.

In mid-June Peking dispatched two ships from Canton to pick up "victimized Chinese nationals" at Vietnamese ports. The ships, which were never allowed to dock, are being recalled to China--empty. Despite all the invective, both countries have agreed to resume discussions of their differences in Hanoi next week. Foreign observers, however, doubt that the low-level talks will do much to resolve what appear to be the real reasons for the neighborly conflict: Hanoi's anger at Chinese support for Viet Nam's hostile neighbor, Cambodia, and Peking's fear of expanding Soviet influence in Viet Nam. qed

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