Ðằng Vân

Point of View

On 2 December 2007, the Communist government in Mainland China took a major step in formalizing its illegal occupation of two archipelagoes off the shores of Vietnam: the Paracel islands and the Spratly islands. China has decided to create the district of Tam Sa, in the island province of Hainan, with specific and official responsibility for the administration of the two archipelagoes.

Although the Paracel islands had been historically and geographically Vietnamese territory for generations, Communist China had occupied them by force in the battle of Hoang Sa on 19 January 1974, between the non-communist government of South Vietnam and Communist China.

Although, the Spratly archipelago has been the subject of dispute between several nations including the Philippines and Malaysia, they only claim minor portions. The two greatest contenders have been the Chinese (both Mainland China and Taiwan) and the Vietnamese.  

The only impetus and justification for the Chinese claim is only their imperialist ambition supported by an insatiable greed for gas and oil. They have had no legal standing whatsoever.

Since the 15^Th century, Vietnamese historical records are able to prove our ownership of the Paracel Islands. Furthermore, these Islands are much closer to Vietnamese shores and continental shelf than the shores and continental shelf of China.

The Spratly Islands, in this aspect, are even further from Chinese territory. The only obstacles to Vietnamese legitimate ownership are the might and greed of the CCP and the deplorable ineptitude of the CPV.

The nightmare for our nation is rooted in the official declaration by the CPV’s PM Pham Van Dong on 14 September 1958 conceding sovereignty to the Chinese.

By conspicuously playing the role of a chastised concubine to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the CPV has betrayed the Vietnamese people in parlous times, in order to preserve its self-interest. In a manner of speaking, not unlike a prostitute, the CPV, in order to curry favor with the CCP, has slept with the enemy of the Vietnamese people. Consumed by their greed and thirst for absolute political power, the CPV has conveniently forgotten that our people and their forefathers have spent their entire 4,000 years history defending themselves against constant threats of occupation and national annihilation from China. Each inch of Vietnamese soil or sea area, now under their control and management, has been hard fought over by our people, and has been acquired with blood and tears.

The wrath of the Vietnamese people, understandably, knows no bounds. Since Sunday 9 December 2007, even in politically strictly controlled Vietnam, the people have spontaneously organized demonstrations in front of the Embassy and General Consulate of the CCP in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Amazingly, instead of officially supporting their people in this just struggle, the official spokesman of the CPV Foreign Ministry had the gall to assuage China by declaring that such demonstrations did not receive the approval of the CPV.

Worse, as though the CCP knows that there shall be no significant reaction from Vietnam as long as its loyal concubine, the CPV, is in power in Vietnam, Chinese Spokesman Qin Gang chided the CPV by warning that such quarrel could harm ties between the two countries. As though such terrible and flagrant violation of our national territorial integrity is no big deal and that the Vietnamese people should learn to take it lying down! Who the hell does this Qin Gang think we are?

Clearly, the CCP is used to treating the CPV as a second rated concubine, in its harem, and threatens to discard it unceremoniously, if it does not know how to behave in the circumstances. China, because of decades of despicable servitude by the CPV, regards Vietnam’s territory as its own backyard. 

Prima facie, for now, the Vietnamese people have been punished for the sins of the CPV. However, in the long term, their wrath will revisit upon the CPV itself. The punishment our people reserves for the CPV, in a not too distant future, will be commensurate to their audacity in committing such adultery with the CCP.  

Ðằng Vân

15 December 2007