Politik - Demokratie (2015/2)

40 Jahre nach Ende des Vietnamkriegs - Eine unvollendete Geschichte

30.04.2015 Gerhard Will (taz) - Vor vierzig Jahren siegte der kommunistische Norden über den Süden. Was wurde aus den Hoffnungen für ein freies Vietnam?

... Viele ausländische Beobachter sahen die Entwicklungschancen Vietnams durchaus positiv. Wer der vielfach überlegenen Feuerkraft der amerikanischen Militärmaschine erfolgreich widerstanden hatte, für den würde auch der wirtschaftliche Wiederaufbau kein unüberwindbares Hindernis darstellen.

Zehn Jahre später hatte sich keine dieser hoffnungsvollen Erwartungen erfüllt. Die durch den jahrzehntelangen Krieg geprägte Führung Vietnams war auf den Frieden überhaupt nicht vorbereitet. Es gelang ihr weder, die Wirtschaft wieder aufzubauen, noch eine nationale Versöhnung in die Wege zu leiten, wie es die „Nationale Befreiungsfront“ versprochen hatte. Im Gegenteil: Die Bevölkerung hatte so wenig zu essen wie in den härtesten Jahren des Krieges.

Man gibt dies in Vietnam ungern zu, aber für die Ende 1986 verkündete Politik der Erneuerung (Doi Moi) war – wie so oft in der Geschichte Vietnams – China das Vorbild: Wachstum durch wirtschaftliche Liberalisierung, aber keine politische Liberalisierung. Die Partei begründet ihren Machtanspruch mit ihrer „weitsichtigen Führung“ des Reformprozesses.

Tatsächlich waren die meisten dieser Reformen eher Zugeständnisse an die Bevölkerung. Bis dato verbotene privatwirtschaftliche Aktivitäten wurden nun erlaubt, ja sogar gefördert. Die Reformen wuchsen so eher von unten nach oben als umgekehrt.

Dennoch verteidigt die Partei bis heute eisern ihr Macht- und Meinungsmonopol und wirft Dissidenten und kritische Journalisten ins Gefängnis. [Weiterlesen]

In den Köpfen der Jungen ein anderes Land

30.04.2015, von Quynh Tran (FAZ) - Offiziell sozialistischer Einparteienstaat, inoffiziell vom Geld getriebene Anarchie – vierzig Jahre nach dem Ende des Krieges hat Vietnam viele Veränderungen überstanden. In welche Richtung sich das Land entwickelt, wird sich mit dem bevorstehenden Generationswechsel zeigen.

An manchen Frühlingstagen durchdringt die kühle Feuchtigkeit der Luft in Hanoi die Kleidung so sehr, dass man beinahe friert. Es ist ein unbestimmter Zustand, irgendwo zwischen warm und kalt, so wie in dieser Stadt und in diesem Land überhaupt alles in einem unbestimmten Zustand ist.

Als ich mein Geburtsland vor 25 Jahren verlassen habe, war es noch immer ein Nachkriegsland, und seitdem komme ich jedes Mal, wenn ich heimkomme, in ein anderes Land, sehe andere Straßen, andere Gebäude, ein anderes Denken bei den Menschen. Das Einzige, was bleibt, sind die stetige Veränderung und die fortwährende Skepsis.

In diesem Frühling erlebe ich eine solche Veränderung. Als ich durch die Straßen der Stadt fahre, sehe ich Alleen mit gefällten Bäumen. Das zerschlagene Holz mitten auf der Straße ist so rot und dunkel, dass es fast aussieht, als würden die Adern der Straßen ausbluten. Auf Nachfrage erzählt mir mein Onkel, dass die Stadt beschlossen hat, 6.700 der 29.600 Bäume zu fällen. Viele der Bäume seien alt und krank, und die unterschiedlichen Baumarten seien eine optisch unbefriedigende Wahl und sollen durch eine einheitliche Bepflanzung ausgetauscht werden, hieß es von offizieller Seite.

Die Hanoier vermuten diesmal, dass wieder korrupte Politiker am Werk sind, die das wertvolle Tropenholz der jahrhundertealten Bäume illegal verkaufen oder Platz für Bauprojekte schaffen wollen, und sind so aufgebracht, dass sich über Facebook und in den Straßen Protest organisiert, etwas, das in dem sozialistischen Land selten passiert. [Weiterlesen]

Diatribe antiaméricaine 40 ans après la fin du conflit

30.04.2015 (20 minutes) - Le Vietnam a célébré jeudi le 40e anniversaire de la chute de Saïgon, dernier épisode de la guerre. Il a décoché des flèches contre l'ancien ennemi lors d'un discours du Premier ministre.

«Ils ont commis d'innombrables crimes barbares, ont causé des pertes incommensurables et beaucoup de douleur à la population de notre pays», a lancé le Premier ministre Nguyen Tan Dung devant la foule réunie devant le palais de l'indépendance, pris d'assaut il y a 40 ans par les chars nord-vietnamiens.

Les victoires militaires passées sont largement utilisées par le pouvoir actuel pour légitimer sa mainmise. Mais la perception que les Vietnamiens ont de la guerre a bien évolué malgré la prédominance du récit historique officiel, estime Tuong Vu, professeur de sciences politiques à l'université de l'Oregon.

A la fin des années 1980, le Vietnam communiste s'est ouvert à l'économie de marché, inaugurant une période de prospérité, accompagnée d'une forte corruption et du creusement des inégalités. Mais sur le plan politique et des libertés civiles, le Vietnam a conservé l'ancien modèle: un Etat à parti unique, sans aucune dissidence tolérée ni liberté des médias. [en savoir plus]

40 years later, Vietnam still deeply divided over war

30.04.2015 Thomas Maresca (USA TODAY) - HO CHI MINH CITY — This bustling city of 8 million that is still called Saigon by many is going all out to celebrate Thursday's 40th anniversary of its fall — the day North Vietnam's Communist army captured South Vietnam's capital.

Propaganda posters and billboards marking Liberation Day blanket a downtown brimming with construction cranes and new high-rise buildings. City landmarks such as the old French colonial city hall and post office have gotten fresh coats of paint. A massive military parade is in the works and a shiny new statue of the North's iconic leader, Ho Chi Minh, waits to be unveiled on a renovated central square.

For journalist and author Huy Duc, the first step towards reconciliation is to acknowledge the very different perspectives on why the war was fought. That has yet to take place.

"Vietnamese people from both sides have to agree on what happened," he said. "People who were sent from the North believed that they fought against the invading Americans and were liberating the South. And many people from the South ... believe it was a civil war, that the South was invaded by the North." [read more]

Verständnis für Feiern zum Kriegsende - Neudeck: Vietnam ist tief gespalten

30.04.2015 Von Dr. Christof Haverkamp (NOZ) - Osnabrück. Der Gründer der Hilfsorganisation „Cap Anamur“, Rupert Neudeck, äußert Verständnis dafür, dass Vietnam an diesem Donnerstag das Kriegsende und den Sieg über die USA vor 40 Jahren feiert.

In einem Gespräch mit unserer Redaktion sagte Neudeck: „Die Feier ist wahrscheinlich unumgänglich, denn es war ein gewaltiger historischer Sieg eines Landes der Dritten Welt über die Supermacht der westlichen Welt.“ Doch die Erinnerung an den militärischen Sieg des kommunistischen Regimes über die USA am 30. April 1975 werde nicht die Spaltung Vietnams überwinden. Nach dem Sieg sei die Gesellschaft des Landes in zwei Teile zerfallen, die beide bis heute eine gesamtvietnamesische Versöhnung ablehnten.

Unter dem kommunistischen Regime seien bis zu fünf Millionen Menschen verfemt worden, die Kontakt mit Vertretern kapitalistischer Länder gehabt hätten. [Weiterlesen]

Golf course debate reflects Vietnam army's capitalist streak

28.04.2015 By Mike Ives, The Associated Press (wftv) - HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — ... In 2007, the Communist Party's powerful Central Committee ordered the military's 140 declared companies to divest from sectors that were not directly related to national security. That number declined to 98 within two years, according to an analysis of public records by BMI Research. But otherwise there have been few tangible results, said Carl Thayer, a Vietnam expert in Australia who has studied the army since the 1980s.

"Over time the government tried to push the military out of purely commercial activities," he said. "It looks like the impetus has died off."

Le Thi Thanh Hoa, who sells birds on a road beside the new golf course adjacent to the airport, said the army is the landlord for her business and dozens of others in the area.

"Doing business with the army is good because its prices are stable," she said, adding that she has paid the same rent — 30 million dong ($1,389) per month — for about five years. "The army's very powerful, and it controls this whole area." [read more] - [tiếng Việt]

The place for VN Communist Party is in front of the Court of Justice

28.04.2015 Bùi Tín, Translated by Nguyễn-Khoa Thái Anh (VN-SHARE-NEWS) - The more than 30 years war in Vietnam has been assessed, debated, dissected for a long time, yet conflicting opinions still persist today.

One side regards it as “a glorious history of struggle of the Vietnamese against foreign invasions,” a heroic people who defeated the Japanese fascists, colonialist France, the American empire of three continents Asia, Europe, America; one who completely vanquished the «Saigon puppet government and puppet army, lackeys of the American imperialists,” to unify the nation, opening the new era of “socialism for the whole country.” The big credit must go to the “glorious Communist Party.” Therefore April 30, 1975 is the date of «heroic history» of the nation.

Conversely, a sizable part of the Vietnamese population considers April 30 as “the day of national enmity.”

The above documents show that the Politburo of the Communist Party soon had completely tore up the Geneva and Paris agreements, publicly violated their commitment, betraying their own signature, and ruthlessly trampled on the South VN people «their rights to self-determination, free to choose their political system that they want to live under», 2 times causing the catastrophic large-scale exoduses from north to south (1954-1955) and the boat people tragedy (1975 to 1980), where many lives were swept away by the sea, the police apparatus collecting thousand taels of gold from the millions who crossed Vietnam border. [read more]

40 years after end of war, the Vietnam People's Army is a capitalist juggernaut

28.04.2015 By Mike Ives, Associated Press (U.S. News & World Report) - HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnam's busiest airport, once a major gateway for thousands of U.S. troops headed for battle, is now the scene of a slow-burning controversy linked to the commercial clout of the country's powerful military.

To alleviate congestion at Ho Chi Minh City's Tan Son Nhat International Airport, top officials in the ruling Communist Party have proposed building an airport costing a whopping $15.8 billion about 40 kilometers (25 miles) away. But some city residents and aviation experts say it makes more sense for the airport to simply expand onto some adjacent land managed by the army. They wonder why the property is being used for a new golf course.

Using the adjacent land for golf is "irrational," said Le Trong Sanh, former head of the airport's flight management department. "We should take back the course."

According to government estimates, military enterprises had a before-tax profit of 46 trillion dong ($2.14 billion) in 2014. But analysts say the enterprises operate to some degree outside the Communist Party's control, and that the exact scope of their commercial dealings is unknown.

The army declined a request for an interview and did not respond to emailed questions about its commercial activities sent by The Associated Press. [read more]

40 years later: Communism's hollow victory in Vietnam

28.04.2015 (The West Australian) - Ho Chi Minh City (AFP) - Forty years after it won the war, the Communist Party still rules Vietnam with an iron fist. But with crony capitalism, corruption and inequality now rife, many claim its victory was a hollow one.

On Thursday, Communist Party rulers will gather for a military parade in Ho Chi Minh City -- formerly Saigon -- to commemorate the day their tanks rolled into city, prompting the surrender of the US-backed South and reunification of the country.

But critics say the victorious Communist Party is now ideologically bankrupt, with the state abandoning the social equality dreams of its founding president Ho Chi Minh and enforcing tight controls on an increasingly critical public.

"This is not a communist country," says Le Cong Dinh, a lawyer and government critic, who remains under house arrest after a 2010 conviction on subversion charges.

Huy Duc, a prominent author who wrote a book about post-war Vietnam, explained to AFP: "The winning side has been changing to become more like the losing side."

Public anger with the one-party state simmers over a range of ills, including widening income disparity, land disputes and corruption scandals -- often involving wealthy party cadres. [read more]

Der tödliche Nebel liegt noch immer über Vietnam

28.04.2015 Von Peter Jaeggi und Roland Schmid (TagesWoche) - Im Vietnamkrieg haben die USA 72 Millionen Liter giftige Herbizide versprüht. Darunter das dioxinhaltige Agent Orange. Wissenschaftler warnten schon damals vor diesem Stoff. Es wird Jahrhunderte dauern, bis sich die Natur erholt hat.

«Als Kind sah ich, wie Flugzeuge eine Art Nebel versprühten. Heute weiss ich, es war Agent Orange.» Nguyen van Bong, hager und kränklich, erzählt von seinen frühen Kriegserlebnissen, die später für die Tragödie seines Lebens sorgen. [Weiterlesen]

La caída de Saigon, 40 años de éxodo y derrota

28.04.2015 Jairo Mejía (Yahoo Noticias) - (EFE).- En la primavera de 1975 Estados Unidos empezaba a olvidar el horror de la Guerra de Vietnam, sus 58.000 soldados muertos y su bochornosa salida a medias, pero la toma de Saigón por los norvietnamitas ahondó en la herida, hizo inapelable la derrota y el éxodo.

El 30 de abril de 1975, columnas del Ejército de Vietnam del Norte entraban victoriosas y sin apenas resistencia en Saigon, mientras casi al mismo tiempo miles de survietnamitas que habían colaborado con los norteamericanos buscaban refugio en la embajada estadounidense.

"El día más triste" o "el abril negro" es como aún recuerdan muchos refugiados vietnamitas en Estados Unidos aquella jornada de la primavera de 1975 en la que comenzó un éxodo que les obligó a echar raíces en un país extraño donde ahora han establecido su hogar.

En zonas como el Condado de Orange (California), Nueva Orleans (Luisiana) o Falls Church (Virginia) aún ondea la bandera de rayas rojas sobre fondo amarillo de la extinta Vietnam del Sur y símbolo de la diáspora vietnamita en Estados Unidos. [seguir leyendo]

As war memories fade, Vietnam still battles Agent Orange legacy

28.04.2015 By Lien Hoang (Reuters) - Tan Tri doesn't know a thing about Agent Orange. But doctors say he lives with its effects every day, when he crawls off his wooden bed and waits for someone to feed him. He is 25.

His mother Vo Thi Nham was exposed to Agent Orange when U.S. forces showered the chemical across swathes of Vietnam half a century ago to the destroy jungle cover of its wartime enemy.

Nham believes it's the reason her son was born physically and mentally disabled. [read more]

Nixon’s Retrospective on the Vietnam War

28.04.2015 By Francis P. Sempa (The Diplomat) - The former president had much to say on Vietnam and the failed use of American power.

Ten years after the war’s end, Nixon wrote a compelling retrospective on the war titled No More Vietnams. As we mark the 40th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War and search for lessons, meaning and historical perspective, Nixon’s book is worth another look.

Nixon made it clear that the threat to Southeast Asia was indeed communism, not Vietnamese nationalism. He debunked the notion that Ho Chi Minh was more of a nationalist than a communist. “There is nothing in Ho’s biography,” wrote Nixon, “to indicate that he placed nationalism above communism.” At the age of 30, Ho helped found the French Communist Party, then traveled to Moscow where he trained to be an agent of the Comintern. As a Moscow-trained revolutionary, Ho cooperated with Vietnamese nationalists when it suited his purposes, but collaborated with the French to undermine and in some instances to destroy nationalist forces. “Though he used the rhetoric of nationalism,” explained Nixon, “Ho was first and foremost a Communist totalitarian. He used nationalism to serve communism rather than the other way around.”

South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, on the other hand, was a nationalist, according to Nixon, and one of America’s crucial mistakes in Vietnam was the Kennedy administration’s support for and acquiescence in Diem’s assassination in 1963. “Whatever his faults,” wrote Nixon, “Diem possessed a significant measure of legitimacy. He was a strong leader of a nation that desperately needed strong leadership. With him gone, power in South Vietnam was up for grabs.” “The Kennedy administration,” Nixon continued, “ sowed the seeds of intrigue that led to the overthrow and murder of Diem. Now, we would reap a bitter harvest.” [read more]

Nobody can prevent oil exploration in our waters: Vietnam

28.04.2015 (The Hindu) - China had earlier cautioned that it would firmly oppose any exploration activity in South China Sea if it undermines its sovereignty and interests.

In an apparent reference to China, Vietnam today asserted that “nobody” could prevent India’s oil exploration efforts in its country, stating it was being undertaken in Hanoi’s exclusive territorial waters.

He was responding to a query on China opposing exploration activities in South China Sea.

“We always welcome that (Indian investments). It is there already. The first gas exploration project was started in 1988 by ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corporation). Now, it is exploring some more blocks in Vietnam,” Ambassador of Vietnam to India Ton Sinh Thanh told reporters here. [read more]

ASEAN turning tougher on China

28.04.2015 Wataru Yoshida, Nikkei staff writer (Nikkei Asian Review) - LANGKAWI, Malaysia -- ASEAN leaders are growing less accommodating toward China, with plans to release a statement contending that its maritime advances damage trust, peace and stability in the region.

Association of Southeast Asian Nations leaders addressed South China Sea territorial disputes Monday morning at an official summit in Kuala Lumpur. The debate was driven by the Philippines, which is butting heads with China over the Spratly Islands.

Visible threats are the biggest reason for this shift. ASEAN had repeatedly expressed concern over Chinese activities, but Beijing has apparently paid no heed. It has ramped up reclamation of the Spratlys, creating landmasses large enough for runways. ASEAN leaders worry that Beijing could stake territorial claims elsewhere as well, a diplomatic source says. [read more]

China maritime tensions dominate Southeast Asia summit

28.04.2015 (The Asahi Shimbun) - KUALA LUMPUR--Southeast Asian leaders edged closer to open criticism of China's land reclamation in the disputed South China Sea at a regional summit on April 27, as the Philippines drew the ire of Beijing which called its objections to the work "unreasonable."

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Kuala Lumpur, which was supposed to showcase the 10-member bloc's progress toward economic integration, was overshadowed by the long-running maritime territorial dispute.

ASEAN's renowned "consensus" approach has been tested over the South China Sea, with several members including host Malaysia reluctant to antagonize China, but diplomatic sources said Kuala Lumpur would eventually give in to pressure from some neighbors and address the reclamation issue at the meeting. [read more]

TIME ASEAN TURNED TO US for maritime cooperation

28.04.2015 Richard Javad Heydarian, Truong-Minh Vu RSIS (The Nation) - China's accelerated construction activities in the South China Sea have further intensified the ongoing maritime disputes between Beijing and its Southeast Asian neighbours, particularly the Philippines and Vietnam. More than just complicating the nature of the ongoing disputes at the expense of other claimant states, China's land reclamation activities signal its growing military assertiveness, as the People's Liberation Army (PLA) moves towards "peripheral defence" and consolidation of its strategic depth in the area.

China's man-made islands fortify its already expansive presence in the contested areas, fulfilling Beijing's broader grand strategy of dominating adjacent waters, particularly vital Sea Lines of Communication (SLOCs) such as the South China Sea. The ongoing construction activities could very well pave the way for the establishment of a Chinese Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the area, as Beijing completes a network of airstrips and military garrisons across the Paracel and Spratly chain of islands. There are real implications for freedom of navigation and flight in the area. [read more]

Marking the end of the Vietnam War: Two sides of the story

28.04.2015 By Marianne Brown (dpa) - Hanoi - The Vietnamese government calls it Liberation Day, but for Nguyen Van Hoang, a wiry man in his mid 60s, the events of April 30, 1975 had different connotations. He recalls the day his life changed forever with a wistful smile.

It was a momentous day: the end of the Vietnam War, as it is known in other countries, and the first day of an independent, unified nation under the Communist government. Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City after North Vietnam's revolutionary leader.

In Ho Chi Minh City, the anniversary was to be marked with incense ceremonies, a special arts programme and a bicycle race anmong others.

But despite the official festivities, the topic remains divisive.

Nguyen Duc Gan, 67, was a North Vietnamese soldier during the war. He was taken prisoner in 1969 and kept in the notorious Phu Quoc island jail until the Paris Peace Accords in 1973. Gan says he believes the date should be celebrated, but in a way that would help Vietnam and the US become closer.

"South Vietnamese soldiers in general have been forgotten. Not just in Vietnam but overseas as well," says Nathalie Nguyen, a scholar from Monash University in Australia who has written about the experience of South Vietnamese veterans.

"From the point of view of the South, the North Vietnamese wanted the whole of Vietnam to be communist and the South resisted. This side of it hardly ever features in accounts of the war. It has been very much dominated by the United States. That's beginning to change slowly," she said. [read more]

April 30 to mark Vietnamese ‘boat people’ acceptance in Canada

27.04.2015 By Kim Mackrael, Ottawa —(The Globe and Mail) - There were cheers and applause as Stephen Harper stepped on stage at a Mississauga convention centre in early February, facing a room filled with South Vietnamese flags and surrounded by Conservative parliamentarians.

Parliament was considering a new proposal, Mr. Harper told the crowd at the Vietnamese Lunar New Year celebration. Known as the Journey to Freedom Day Act, the proposed legislation would establish April 30 as a day to commemorate the acceptance of some 60,000 Vietnamese “boat people” in Canada after the end of the Vietnam War.

“It is a story that more Canadians should know,” Mr. Harper said.

That bill came into effect last Thursday, to the delight of some Vietnamese-Canadian associations and the frustration of the government of Vietnam. On Friday, Vietnam’s foreign ministry summoned the Canadian ambassador in Hanoi and publicly denounced the bill as a “backward step” in relations between the two countries. [read more]

My Father, the Spy in the Hanoi Hilton

27.04.2015 By Jim Stockdale (The Daily Beast) - For seven and a half years, my father James B. Stockdale led a POW espionage network that linked tortured Americans inside North Vietnam directly to the Pentagon.

When word came that Hanoi would release American prisoners, Dad had been jailed for well over seven years. Although in solitary confinement—and combinations of leg irons, pinch cuffs, and blindfolds for more than half that time—he and his fellow prisoners were able to forge a community of resistance and covert communication. Within the walls they corresponded via tap code, knotted string, and daredevil shouts. Beyond their confinement, they used invisible carbon techniques, cryptography, and (at the very end) microdots to reach from their prison cells to the offices of Naval Intelligence and beyond.

I was just fourteen when he left for the “long cruise,” and following his release, I flashed across the years during which his fate (and that of our family) hung in sometimes horrifying limbo. The first “secret writing” message we saw was, “Hand and leg irons 14-16 hours a day. Masters at torture,” followed by a list of more than 40 prisoner names, some of them already classified as Killed in Action by the Pentagon. [read more]

ASEAN-Länder wollen gemeinsame Zeitzone einführen

27.04.2015 (NZZ) - KUALA LUMPUR (awp international) - Die zehn Mitgliedsländer der südostasiatischen Staatengemeinschaft Asean wollen eine gemeinsame Zeitzone einrichten. Man sei diesem Ziel einen Schritt näher gekommen, sagte Malaysias Ministerpräsident Najib Razak am Montag auf einem Asean-Gipfel in Kuala Lumpur. Man hoffe, bis zum nächsten Treffen im November einen Konsens zu erreichen. Die Pläne sehen vor, in den ASEAN-Staaten einheitlich die gleiche Uhrzeit einzuführen wie Peking. Dies soll unter anderem den Handel unter den Mitgliedsländern erleichtern.

Bei dem Gipfel, der unter starken Sicherheitsvorkehrungen stattfand, wurden auch die Vorbereitungen für eine Wirtschaftsunion in Südostasien vorangetrieben. Die zehn Asean-Länder wollen bis Ende 2015 einen gemeinsamen Markt schaffen. [Weiterlesen]

Asean-Gipfel Vereinte Kritik an China

27.04.2015 von Petra Kolonko, Peking (FAZ) - Die Führer der zehn Asean-Staaten haben bei ihrem Treffen die Regionalmacht China scharf kritisiert. Die Territorialansprüche im südchinesischen Meer stellten eine Gefahr für Frieden, Stabilität und Sicherheit dar.

China sieht sich mit Kritik seitens der Asean-Gemeinschaft wegen seiner Landgewinnung in umstrittenen Regionen des Südchinesischen Meeres konfrontiert. Das Vorgehen Chinas hätte Vertrauen zerstört und könnte Frieden, Stabilität und Sicherheit im Südchinesischen Meer untergraben, heißt es in einer Erklärung, die die Führer der zehn Staaten der südostasiatischen Gemeinschaft Asean am Montag in Kuala Lumpur abgaben. [Weiterlesen]

Asian Nations Rally for Rule of Law

27.04.2015 By Joshua Philipp (Epoch Times) - The 10-member Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN) is expected to release a statement on April 27 calling for heavy consultations for a code of conduct in the South China Sea. This could mark the first steps towards rule of law in the disputed region.

The Chinese regime claims most of the South China Sea and East China Sea, and has actively expanded its military operations in the region in recent years. Conflicts have focused heavily on the Spratly Islands—close to 1,000 miles south of China’s southernmost tip of Hainan island—which are claimed by the Chinese regime, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines.

Many ASEAN members are calling out the Chinese regime directly for its aggression in the region. [read more]

Chinese actions push PH, Vietnam closer together

27.04.2015 (ABS-CBN) KUALA LUMPUR – President Benigno Aquino III and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung held a bilateral meeting at the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit Sunday evening, highlighting the growing cooperation between the Southeast Asian neighbors in the face of Chinese actions in the South China Sea.

Presidental Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said Aquino and Dung pledged to work for the adoption by ASEAN of a legally binding Code of Conduct in the South China Sea.

Recent satellite images show China has made significant progress in its dredging activities in the disputed waters, and Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said the Chinese reclamation would probably be finished before Beijing finally agrees to a legally binding code of conduct. [read more]

Filipinas y Vietnam denuncian el "acoso" de China en los territorios en disputa

27.04.2015 (EFE) - Filipinas y Vietnam denunciaron el "acoso" de China en los territorios en disputa en el mar de China Meridional, tras varios incidentes de embarcaciones de ambos países con guardacostas chinos, informaron hoy fuentes oficiales.

El presidente filipino, Benigno Aquino, y el primer ministro vietnamita, Nguyen Tan Dung, "expresaron su preocupación por las actividades de reclamación que lleva a cabo China" en la zona, según un comunicado del secretario de Comunicaciones filipino, Herminio Coloma. [seguir leyendo]

Filipinas insta Asean a hacer frente a China ante disputas territoriales

26.04.2015 (Univision) - Bangkok (EFE) - Filipinas advirtió hoy de que la Asociación de Naciones del Sudeste Asiático (Asean) arriesga su credibilidad con su inacción ante China en las disputas territoriales en el Mar de China Meridional, donde Pekín puede hacerse con el control "de facto".

El secretario de Exteriores filipino, Albert del Rosario, denunció el "empeoramiento de la situación" en la zona e instó a la Asean a "alzarse en defensa de lo que es correcto", durante una reunión de ministros de Exteriores del bloque en Kuala Lumpur.

"Defendemos que si Asean no hace nada sobre estas reclamaciones, Asean socavará su propia centralidad, solidaridad y credibilidad", dijo del Rosario, según una transcripción facilitada por su departamento. [seguir leyendo]

Philippinen fordern mehr Entschlossenheit im Inselstreit mit China

Beim Gipfeltreffen der südostasiatischen Staatengemeinschaft (ASEAN) geht es nicht nur um einen gemeinsamen Wirtschaftsraum. Seit Jahren ist die Staatengruppe uneins über den Streit im Südchinesischen Meer.

26.04.2015 (dw) - Die Philippinen verlangen von den anderen südostasiatischen Ländern mehr Entschlossenheit im Inselstreit mit China. Die Regierung in Peking wolle ihre Kontrolle über umstrittene Gebiete im Südchinesischen Meer weiter ausbauen, sagte der philippinische Außenminister Albert del Rosario beim Treffen der Staatengemeinschaft ASEAN (links im Artikelbild mit seinem Kollegen aus Laos, Thongloun Sisoulith). Bei der Konferenz in Malaysias Hauptstadt Kuala Lumpur forderte Rosario die anderen ASEAN-Staaten auf, sich dem mächtigen Nachbarn "endlich entgegenzustellen". Die Bedrohung, die von Chinas Gebietsansprüchen ausgehe, könne nicht länger "ignoriert oder geleugnet" werden. [Weiterlesen]Philippines calls on ASEAN to urge China to halt land reclamation

26.04.2015 (Reuters) - The Philippines called on its Southeast Asian neighbours to unite in urging China to halt reclamation of land in the South China Sea, but the call failed to raise widespread support ahead of a regional summit.

China claims 90 percent of the South China Sea, which is believed to be rich in oil and gas. Its claims overlap with those of Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan.

In a speech to foreign ministers ahead of the official opening of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Philippine Foreign Minister Albert del Rosario did not name China directly but said its "northern neighbour" was quickly advancing with land reclamation.

"Is it not time for ASEAN to say to our northern neighbour that what it is doing is wrong and that the massive reclamations must be immediately stopped?" Rosario asked. [read more]

EU set to resume free-trade talks at ASEAN summit dominated by China sea dispute

26.04.2015 (dw) - The Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the EU agreed Sunday to explore a free-trade agreement, which initially began in 2007 but stalled in 2009 following EU concerns over Myanmar's human rights record. The move comes as the 10-member bloc is expected to merge into a single market by the end of the year.

"But it is important that we get it right and that is why we proposed this roadmap, a stock-taking event by the end of the year."

The commissioner's statement comes one day ahead of the annual ASEAN summit. However, a key talking point of this year's summit is China's maneuvers in the South China Sea, which has proven to be a controversial topic among ASEAN countries.

China's "militarizing" of the South China Sea is "infringing on the rights of the other states," Filipino Foreign Secretary Albert Del Rosario told ASEAN foreign ministers at a meeting on Sunday.

The Philippines have been critical of China's territorial expansion for years. However, the country has intensified its criticism recently after satellite images emerged detailing China's land reclamation and construction in the disputed sea. [read more]

Sieg oder Niederlage? Zwist über den Jahrestag bei Vietnams Veteranen

25.04.2015 (Bluewin) - Vietnam plant Ende April zum 40. Jahrestag des kommunistischen Siegs grosse Paraden. Aber nicht allen ist nach Feiern zumute.

Für die einen, die Vietnamesen aus dem Norden, ist der 30. April der Tag der Befreiung. Für manche Südvietnamesen nicht. «Der Tag, an dem das Vaterland verloren ging», sagen sie. Zitieren lässt sich damit auch 40 Jahre später aber kaum einer. Vietnam ist ein kommunistischer Einparteienstaat. Kritik an der Partei ist verboten. Im Norden heisst der Krieg landläufig «amerikanischer Krieg», im Süden Bürgerkrieg.

Für die Regierung in Hanoi war der Krieg vor allem eine Befreiungsschlacht gegen fremde Besatzer. Diese einseitige Darstellung bröckele aber, sagt Vietnam-Experte Tuong Vu an der US-Universität von Oregon. «Viele ins Ausland geflüchtete Vietnamesen betonen den Bürgerkriegscharakter, und sie erreichen damit die jüngeren Leute, vor allem in Südvietnam», sagt er. [Weiterlesen]

British Vietnam Migrants Recall Deadly Voyage

The stories of the Vietnamese Boat People who settled in the UK draw parallels with the current migrant crisis in the Med.

25.04.2015 By Richard Suchet, Sky News Reporter (Sky UK) - The drowning of more than 800 migrants last week is another tragic example of the risk borne by those trying to cross the Med for a better life - but this year's deaths are not the first refugee crisis at sea.

The perilous crossings from North Africa are chillingly reminiscent of the late 1970s and 1980s when nearly a million Vietnamese attempted to escape communism by crossing the South China Sea.

They became known as the Vietnamese Boat People and at one point 10,000 were fleeing the country by boat every month.

Crowded, rickety vessels and attacks by pirates were the reality for many of the refugees - and thousands starved or drowned. [read more]

China's South China Sea Disaster

25.04.2015 By Joshua Kurlantzick (The National Interest) - Until the past five years, the Philippines and Vietnam had minimal strategic ties other than working together, through ASEAN initiatives, on a range of nontraditional security issues. The two countries had very different styles of leadership—the Philippines is a vibrant democracy with one of the freest media markets in the world, while Vietnam remains run by a highly opaque Party—and Hanoi remained wary of diverging from its strategy of hedging close ties with China with increasingly close relations with the United States.

Now, Hanoi and Manila appear willing to formalize their cooperation, which should be a worrying thought for Beijing, since this cooperation signals that Southeast Asian nations are now becoming more unified in their opposition to Beijing’s South China Sea policies. [read more]

«Boat people»: le Vietnam proteste contre des commémorations au Canada

25.04.2015 (La Presse) - AFP  - Hanoï a adressé de vifs reproches à Ottawa après l'adoption par le Sénat canadien d'une loi instaurant une journée commémorant l'arrivée au Canada de dizaines de milliers de «boat people» fuyant le Vietam après la prise de Saïgon par les communistes il y a 40 ans.

Le ministre des Affaires étrangères du Vietnam a dit avoir convoqué l'ambassadeur du Canada vendredi pour lui présenter officiellement une plainte contre la décision de faire du 30 avril le «Jour du voyage vers la liberté».

Environ un million de réfugiés vietnamiens, qualifiés de «boat people» ont été accueillis par les États-Unis, la France, l'Australie et le Canada. [en savoir plus]

Gestrandet, tot: Boatpeople einst und heute

24.04.2015 Anne-Catherine Simon  (Die Presse) - Boat People“ oder „Boatpeople“ nennt man heute in vielen Medien die afrikanischen Flüchtlinge, die über das Mittelmeer nach Europa zu gelangen versuchen und dabei zu tausenden ertrinken. Der Begriff verbindet die gegenwärtige Flüchtlingstragödie im Mittelmeer mit einer, die Jahrzehnte zurückliegt. Boatpeople, das waren jene Menschen, die in den Jahren nach dem Vietnam-Krieg vor dem kommunistischen Regime flüchteten, das hunderttausende hinrichten, foltern, an Sklavenarbeit oder in Umerziehungslagern sterben ließ. Über eineinhalb Millionen versuchten in der zweiten Hälfte der Siebziger- und in den Achtzigerjahren in Booten über das Südchinesische Meer zu gelangen. Hunderttausende kamen darin um, häufig, weil sie in den Monsun-Winden Schiffbruch erlitten oder im Golf von Thailand von Piraten angegriffen wurden; viele wählten wegen dieser Gefahren eine noch längere Route, nach Malaysia, was sich oft als noch riskanter erwies. [Weiterlesen]

Ikonisches Foto aus dem Vietnam-Krieg - Negativ 7a

24.04.2015 Von Willi Winkler (SZ) - Es war kein Versehen, sagt Nick Ut, es geschah mit vollem Risiko. Zwei Bomber der südvietnamesischen Armee flogen vierzig Kilometer vor Saigon einen Angriff auf den Ort Trang Bang, den der Vietcong bereits erreicht hatte. Die Stelle, wo es den Feind aus dem Norden treffen sollte, war von einem Aufklärungsflugzeug mit einer weißen Phosphorgranate markiert worden. Südvietnamesische Soldaten kennzeichneten ihren Bereich sicherheitshalber rosa.

Flüchtlinge von auswärts und Bürger von Trang Bang hatten sich am 8. Juni 1972 in eine Pagode zwischen den Grenzlinien geflüchtet. Die beiden A-1 E Skyraider aus Südvietnam, altmodische Propellermaschinen, missachteten die Markierungen und bombardierten - um den Vietcong zu erwischen - auch Zivilisten und den Befehlsstand der eigenen Armee. Das Napalm, in vier Portionen ausgebracht, regnete unterschiedslos auf alles herab, gleich ob es stillstand oder sich bewegte.

Nick Ut hat das Friendly Fire am 8. Juni 1972 miterlebt, sah, wie die südvietnamesischen Flugzeuge ihre eigenen Leute unter Feuer nahmen. Vierzig Jahre nach Kriegsende ist der Fotograf für eine Reportage des US-Magazins Vanity Fair noch einmal an den Ort zurückgekehrt, an dem sein berühmtestes Bild entstanden ist. [Weiterlesen]

Vietnam rebukes Canadian ambassador over commemoration of fall of Saigon

24.04.2015 By Kim Mackrael, Ottawa (The Globe and Mail) - Vietnam’s government says its relationship with Ottawa has been damaged by a Canadian bill meant to commemorate the arrival of tens of thousands of refugees in Canada after the fall of Saigon.

The bill came into effect on Thursday and sets April 30 as Journey to Freedom Day, a nod to members of Canada’s Vietnamese community that has generated controversy and raised questions about relations between Ottawa and Hanoi. At issue is the choice of date, which Vietnam says should be celebrated as marking the end of the war and the beginning of reconciliation between North and South Vietnam.

The Canadian senator who introduced the bill, originally titled the Black April Day Act, said at first that it would mark the day South Vietnam fell “under the power of an authoritarian and oppressive communist regime.” The bill’s title was later amended to the Journey to Freedom Day Act and references to Hanoi were removed.

A spokeswoman for Foreign Affairs Minister Rob Nicholson declined to respond to questions about the Vietnam government’s reaction to the bill’s passage. Instead, Johanna Quinney sent a statement from Defence and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney saying the bill would give Canadians an opportunity to reflect on the journey of Vietnamese refugees to Canada. [read more]

Powerful propaganda: Vietnam journalists' role in war

22.04.2015 By Cat Barton (digitaljournal) - AFP - Many US soldiers who fought in Vietnam will remember Hanoi Hannah, the silky-voiced communist radio correspondent who urged young American GIs to stop fighting and go home.

She is the most famous of dozens of Vietnamese journalists drafted by the communists to help the war effort, which ended 40 years ago this month with the fall of the city then known as Saigon.

In daily broadcasts from the northern capital Hanoi, Hannah would play music by Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, announce the names of American troops killed in fighting, and read clippings from US newspapers about anti-war protests.

"Nothing is more confused than to be ordered into a war to die or to be maimed for life without the faintest idea of what's going on," Hannah, whose real name is Trinh Thi Ngo, said on air, reading from a script whose message was tightly controlled by the communist authorities.

"I don't think many GI's actually listened to her, much less were influenced by what she said. They knew it was all propaganda," said Carl Robinson, a journalist who covered the war for the Associated Press, adding US forces preferred listening to their army's own radio network.

While Vietnamese reporters working for the communist side were certainly less balanced in their reporting than the foreign press, their images were still powerful, according to photographer Tim Page, who covered the war for UPI.

"The problem that the great frames taken by the photographers on the 'other side' is that they never got to see the light of day in the west," Page, co-author of a book of images by foreign and Vietnamese journalists killed in the war, told AFP. [read more]

Vietnam 40 years on: how a communist victory gave way to capitalist corruption

22.04.2015 By Nick Davies (The Guardian) - After the military victory, Vietnam’s socialist model began to collapse. Cut off by US-led trade embargos and denied reconstruction aid, it plunged into poverty. Now its economy is booming – but so is inequality and corruption...

... In an office across the city sat Nguyen Cong Khe. For years, he edited Thanh Nien, the newspaper that was based in the building outside which the Coffee Lady plied her trade. During his editorship, Khe upset some powerful people, disclosing links between a Saigon gangster and senior officials, then publishing the story of a huge scandal that implicated some very well‑connected families in the theft of public funds. That was risky. Vietnam runs a clumsy system of official censorship, calling in editors every week – on Tuesdays in Hanoi and Thursdays in Saigon – to tell them what to cover and what to conceal. For his efforts, in 2008, Khe was sacked.

Khe was himself part of the revolution. As a student in the early 1970s, he agitated against the Americans and spent three years behind bars. He was a party member for years. He understands why the leadership turned to the tools of capitalism to kickstart the economy, but he has seen the dark side of the neoliberal coin – the corruption and the inequality.

You can see it on the streets. Despite its dark past, Saigon has boomed into a seething mass of commercial activity. But it is, nonetheless, a city in the developing world, with signs of poverty on every side. And then there is Dong Khoi Street – an island of self-indulgent wealth where the new elite can buy a T-shirt from Hermes for $500, a watch from Versace for $15,000, or a dining-room table with four chairs covered in gold-leaf calf skin and stuffed with goose feathers for $65,000. And on the corner, the Continental Hotel sells meals that would cost a week’s pay for a worker, in a restaurant called – with one final slap in Ho Chi Minh’s face – Le Bourgeois.

Khe reckoned that for every $10 assigned to any public project, $7 is going into somebody’s pocket. Really? So 70% of Vietnam’s state budget is being stolen? That would be a theft of staggering proportions. We spoke via a translator. He nodded, and twisted one hand in the air: “Between 50 and 70%.” [read more] - [tiếng Việt]

What if there had been a South Vietnam?

21.04.2015 John J. Metlzer (The Statesman) - Four long decades since the stunning imagery of North Vietnamese tanks smashing through the gates of Saigon’s Doc Lap Independence Palace seizing the South Vietnamese capital, ending the decades-long war, and bringing forcible reunification by the communists to the divided nation.

By 1975, and even despite the ongoing conflict, South Vietnam was still ahead of the North. As long as the Saigon government could develop its socio/economic base free from both Viet Cong insurgency and the threat of a largescale conventional North Vietnamese onslaught, something similar to South Korea’s post-1953 economic revival could have happened.

Though South Vietnam’s economy was weak in the aftermath of years of war, with a cease-fire which held, and supported by a continuing flow of American economic assistance, Saigon stood at the threshold of possible success. By the early 1980s, a new wave of foreign investment, opening markets and enterprise-driven economics were radically transforming places like Korea and China and equally sweeping Southeast Asia from Singapore to Thailand. South Vietnam was thus well poised to attract some of this investment and trade.

As I have written before, “Hanoi’s arrogant triumphalism following reunification in 1975, assured the Socialist Republic of Vietnam that it would be bypassed by the rising tide of economic development and waves of investment which lapped on the shores from South Korea to Singapore.” In 1978, just three years after the invasion of the South, socialist Vietnam’s per capita income stood at a paltry US$170 while South Korea’s was $1,200, Malaysia was $1,100, Taiwan $2,000 and Thailand $500.

Vietnam’s per capita income now has reached $2,230, South Korea stands at $25,000, Malaysia $12,000, Taiwan $22,000 and Thailand $6,260.

Economic changes finally came for a reunited Vietnam, but not before the harrowing socialist mismanagement, the re-education camps, the two million boat people refugees and the continuing authoritarianism. This story could have ended so differently. [read more]

Charlie filmte nicht

21.04.2015 von Wolfgang Röhl (FreieWelt) - Dass eine WDR-Dokumentation über den Vietnamkrieg ungefähr so differenziert rüberkommen würde wie ein Beitrag der Deutschen Wochenschau von 1943 über Stalingrad, das wurde bei der Erstausstrahlung des Werks auf „arte“ am 14. April schnell klar.

„Der Vietnamkrieg. Gesichter einer Tragödie“ ist der Titel eines zyklopenhaften Blicks auf den zweiten Vietnamkrieg (das ist der mit den Amis in der Schurkenrolle). Sollte das Feature nicht in Studios produziert worden sein, die dem Propagandaministerium in Hanoi unterstehen, so könnte der WDR von Letzterem mit Fug und Recht nachträglich einen Produktionskostenzuschuss verlangen.

Die TV-Erzählung aus Köln bildet ohne wenn und aber den Stand der offiziellen Hanoier Geschichtsklitterung ab. Das Grundmaterial des Films kann man in zahlreichen Agitprop-Stätten finden, die der vietnamesische Staat unterhält.

Das Schicksal der Boat People streift der anderthalbstündige Film nur ganz kurz. Kunststück. Hätte auch schlecht in die WDR-Erzählung gepasst. [Weiterlesen]

New photos of Chinese expansion in S. China Sea

21.04.2015 By Raul Dancel, Philippines Correspondent, In Manila (ANN) - THE Philippines has released new aerial photos of Chinese land reclamations in the South China Sea that it said seriously threaten its "naval arc of defence".

With that threat in mind, President Benigno Aquino will ask fellow Asean leaders when he meets them in Kuala Lumpur next week to issue a "collective statement" denouncing China's "worrisome" territorial expansion.

Philippine military chief Gregorio Catapang told a news conference yesterday that the artificial islands China is building on Johnson South, Subi and Mischief reefs will form a chain that cuts off areas the Philippines occupies in the Spratlys from its main archipelago. [read more]

Vietnam asked Philippines to form pact to counter China, Aquino reveals

20.04.2015 Raissa Robles (SCMP) - A new “strategic partnership” being negotiated between two states fending off China’s maritime claims in the South China Sea was suggested by Vietnam, Philippine President Benigno Aquino has revealed.

It had been widely assumed that the proposed pact between Vietnam and the Philippines was initiated by Manila, which has taken a high-profile stand against China.

In an exclusive interview with the South China Morning Post, the Philippine president said China’s moves in the South China Sea were even more alarming than a year ago, when he likened global inaction to China’s push to appeasing Hitler – comments that angered China. [read more]

Unkrautvernichter - das giftige Vermächtnis des Krieges

20.04.2015 (Schweizer Bauer) - Operation «Ranch Hand» hiess das Programm, mit dem die Amerikaner im Vietnamkrieg die Oberhand behalten wollten. Von 1962 bis 1971 versprühten Flugzeuge 75 Millionen Liter hochgiftige Entlaubungsmittel und Unkrautvernichter, um die Nachschubwege der Vietkong-Rebellen im Dschungel für Luftangriffe sichtbar zu machen.

24 Prozent der Fläche Südvietnams wurde verseucht: zwei Millionen Hektaren Mangroven und Wälder wurden entlaubt, 200'000 Hektaren Ernten zerstört, 3800 Dörfer waren direkt getroffen. Der Hintergrund: Vietnam ist seit dem Sieg gegen die französischen Kolonialherren 1954 entlang des 17. Breitengrades geteilt. Die USA unterstützen das südvietnamesische Regime, als Bollwerk gegen den Kommunismus in Südostasien.

Doch die nordvietnamesischen Kämpfer, die kommunistischen Vietkong, stehlen sich immer wieder über Dschungelpfade in den Süden und greifen an. Mehrere hunderte Tonnen Kriegsmaterial wurden täglich in den Süden geschleust. [read more]

China's ties with Vietnam viewed through rose-tinted glasses

19.04.2015 Cary Huang (SCMP) - Press stresses the partnership between Beijing and Hanoi, but the evidence suggests Vietnam is still wary of its giant neighbour

It is apparent that efforts to establish a defensive socialist alliance have become unrealistic; their ideological affinity has fallen victim again to the imperatives of realpolitik. Their shared historical experiences, culture and values have failed to alter their respective agendas on national security and strategy.

The special bond was evident when China provided critical material aid to help their Vietnamese comrades' fight, first against the French in the first Indochina war from the late 1940s until 1954 - and the Americans in the second conflict, better known as the Vietnam war.

However, by February 1979 all signs of brotherly love had disappeared when a bloody Sino-Vietnamese border war broke out between the two neighbours. [read more]

Voices: 40 years later, still looking through the eyes of a refugee

19.04.2015 Thuan Le Elston (USA TODAY) - April 30, 1975, just about 40 years ago. On a U.S. military base in Guam, in a Quonset hut my family has been sharing with two dozen other families since we fled South Vietnam a week before, the bunk beds are filled with people listening to my father translate a BBC radio announcement: Saigon, our nation's capital, has fallen to northern communists.

My parents had been born in the north, and their families were among a million who fled when the country was divided into communist North Vietnam and South Vietnam.

The last U.S. combat troops left in 1973, but American diplomats, security units and journalists stayed till the end. Dad had wanted to join the nationalist Vietminh to end French colonialization, but when it turned communist, he lost all illusions. Both his and Mom's families abandoned homes and businesses in 1954 because they didn't want to live under communism. My parents now realized they'd have to do it again.

We were among a million Vietnamese who fled over two decades after the war ended, one of the largest exoduses in modern times. Hundreds of thousands, known as boat people, chose to face the open sea and pirates rather than stay in Vietnam. Those who survived lived for years in refugee camps in Southeast Asia before relocating to new homes. [read more]

Besetzt im Namen der Wissenschaft

19.04.2015 Von Stefan Kornelius (SZ) - Die rund 780 Inseln im Südchinesischen Meer sind seit Jahrzehnten ein Zankapfel zwischen den Anrainerstaaten. Jetzt heizt China den Konflikt kräftig an. Das "Riff zum feurigen Kreuz" hat - wenn man von oben schaut - eher die Form eines Schiffes. Genauer betrachtet: die eines Flugzeugträgers. Fiery Cross Reef dürfte eigentlich auch nicht mehr als Riff bezeichnet werden, denn die Ansammlung von Untiefen und Felsen ist in nur neun Monaten zu einer kompakten Insel-Masse zusammengewachsen, Dank der vielen Schwimmbagger, die permanent Sand aus der Tiefe holen und an den richtigen Stellen aufhäufen. Die Nachricht vom Flughafen mitten im Südchinesischen Meer hat Fachleute nicht überrascht. Seit Monaten verfolgen Experten mit wachsender Sorge, wie immer neue Bauprojekte aus den Wassern des Pazifischen Ozeans emporsteigen. Nun aber haben die Ingenieurarbeiten ein derart beängstigendes Ausmaß angenommen, dass die Weltöffentlichkeit aufgerüttelt werden muss - finden zumindest die Anrainer-Staaten Philippinen und Vietnam, die sich in dieser Sache auf einen mächtigen Verbündeten stützen können: die USA.

Die Regierung in Peking gibt sich derweil ungerührt und beharrt auf seiner Meinung, wonach die Territorien seit jeher von China kontrolliert würden. Gespräche werden angeboten - aber nicht wirklich ernsthaft geführt. [Weiterlesen]

Regional strategic context improves Australia–Vietnam relations

18.04.2015 Author: Derek McDougall, University of Melbourne (East Asia Forum) - ... The Australia–Vietnam relationship sits within a bilateral and multilateral context. Vietnam is an emerging economy and there are mutual benefits for the two countries in developing their trade and investment relationship. Vietnam is also an important recipient of Australian development assistance and sends students to Australian institutions of higher education. While defence cooperation and security dialogues are part of the relationship, they are not hugely significant.

An important factor affecting the Australia–Vietnam relationship is the presence of a large Vietnamese community in Australia, comprised of mainly refugees from the aftermath of the Vietnam War and their descendants. According to Australia’s Department of Immigration and Border Protection there were 215,460 Vietnamese-born people in Australia at the end of June 2013. Given its origins, this community is generally critical of the communist government in Vietnam. But their influence on the substantive issues in Australia–Vietnam relations appears to be limited. The Australian government pays some attention to human rights issues in Vietnam, but these are generally quarantined from the substantive issues. [read more]

Mar chino meridional: imágenes satelitales confirman la política “imperialista” de Beijing

17.04.2015 (AsiaNews) - Manila - China ha realizado ulteriores progresos en la construcción de una pista de aterrizaje sobre un atolón en el mar Chino meridional, en una zona que está en el centro de una áspera discusión territorial. Es cuánto se ve en las imágenes satelitales difundidas en estos días, por el Jane´s Defence Weekly, periódico semanal dedicado a problemas y tecnologías militares, editado por la Jane´s Information Group (IHS). Las fotos muestran los trabajos de construcción sobre una porción de tierra surgida sobre el Fiery Cross Reef, en las islas Spratly. La nueva formación está en grado de hospedar una pista para aviones, es larga más de 3 mil metros y no se excluye que pueda tener finalidades militares. Una prospectiva que preocupa a los gobiernos de Asia-Pacífico y en particular a Filipinas y Vietnam.

Las últimas imágenes, sacadas el 23 de marzo pasado, confirman la creciente actividad china en diversas zonas de las islas Spratly. [seguir leyendo] - [tiếng Việt]

Südchinesisches Meer: China baut Landebahn auf künstlicher Insel

17.04.2015 (Spiegel Online) - Einst war es nur ein Riff- schon bald könnten Flugzeuge landen: China treibt auf einer umstrittenen Insel im Südchinesischen Meer offenbar den Bau einer Start- und Landebahn voran. Auf neuen Satellitenbildern, die das US-Politikinstitut Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) auf seiner Internetseite veröffentlichte, ist den Angaben zufolge zu sehen, dass die schätzungsweise 3000 Meter lange Piste auf der Insel Fiery Cross Reef bereits zu einem Drittel fertig gestellt ist.

Fiery Cross Reef gehört zu den Spratly-Inseln, auf die auch die Philippinen, Vietnam und andere Staaten ganz oder teilweise Anspruch erheben. China hatte Ende 2014 begonnen, dass Riff zu einer künstlichen Insel auszubauen. Das Riff lag zuvor offenbar größtenteils unter Wasser. Es handelt sich um das vierte künstliche Eiland. Zuvor hatte China bereits am Johnson South Reef, am Cuateron Reef und am Gaven Reef Inseln aufgeschüttet. [Weiterlesen] - [tiếng Việt]

Einfluss in Asien Chinas bedrohliche Umarmung

17.04.2015 von Christoph Hein, Singapur (FAZ) - Peking will möglichst weite Teile Asiens in den eigenen Einflussbereich integrieren. Der Mischung aus billigem Geld, Infrastrukturprojekten und diplomatischen Offerten kann sich kaum ein Land entziehen.

Mehr und mehr schält sich ein deutliches Bild heraus: China versucht, möglichst weite Teile Asiens in den chinesischen Einflussbereich zu integrieren. Die Methoden dafür sind vielfältig: Sie reichen von der Inbesitznahme der Inseln im Südchinesischen Meer über den Bau von Infrastruktur in Indonesien, Thailand oder Pakistan oder Entwicklungshilfe etwa in Nepal bis zu multilateralen Ansätzen wie der Gründung der Asiatischen Infrastrukturbank (AIIB) oder dem Konzept der neuen Seidenstraße. Einzelprojekte werden über Staatsbanken finanziert, erfahrene staatliche Baukonzerne Chinas führen sie aus. Japan, Chinas wichtigstes Gegengewicht in Asien, hat dem trotz hoher Investitionen in den Nachbarländern wenig entgegenzusetzen. [Weiterlesen]

China Building Runway in Disputed South China Sea

17.04.2015 (VOA) - Recent satellite photos show that China is building an airstrip on reclaimed land in a disputed part of the South China Sea, and could be planning another.

Jane's Defense Weekly said that images, dated March 23, from Airbus Defense and Space showed work on a runway on Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly Islands, territory also claimed by several neighbors, including Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines.

Images of Fiery Cross Reef showed a paved section of runway 505 meters (552 yards) by 53 meters (58 yards) on the northeastern side of the reef, which China began turning into an island with extensive dredging last year, the report said.

Preparation of other runway sections had also begun further along the island and workers had paved an apron area of about 400 meters (437 yards) by 20 meters (22 yards). [read more] - [tiếng Việt]

Vietnam: Representación geográfica de los indicadores socio-económicos

16.04.2015 Escrito por Mong Palatino, Traducido por María Angélica Marín (Global Voices) - El Banco Mundial ha publicado mapVIETNAM, un mapa interactivo que muestra para Vietnam varios indicadores socio-económicos tales como tasas de pobreza, empleo y conectividad eléctrica. El mapa (parcial) de la foto muestra el número de hogares viviendo con $2 dólares diarios. [seguir leyendo]

The internet in Vietnam - If a tree falls…

…online, will the Communist Party hear anything?

16.04.2015 (The Economist) - SAPLINGS have sprouted on several streets in Hanoi, Vietnam’s leafy capital. They are puny replacements for at least 500 grand old trees that were uprooted last month without public consultation. The clearance was supposed to be the first phase of a city-government project to replace 6,700 mature specimens. But it spawned outrage on Facebook in a campaign which gathered 20,000 supporters in 24 hours, some of whom speculated that officials were motivated by the chance of selling the valuable timber. Three days later, on March 19th, the city’s leader, Nguyen The Thao, put the cutting on hold. He later suspended scores of officials and commissioned an investigation, due to be completed in a few days.

Vietnamese officials have “stopped seeing social media as evil”, argues Dang Hoang Giang at the Centre for Community Support Development Studies, a consulting firm in Hanoi. But he doubts that recent responses to mass online criticism mark the dawn of a more open politics. The campaigns are loosely organised, he explains, and the tree fiasco highlights a disturbing trend of increasingly brazen profiteering by local party officials. [read more]

China’s reclamation activities to raise tension in Asia Pacific —Australia

16.04.2015 By Michaela del Callar (GMA News) - Australia, a key player in the Asia Pacific, on Thursday expressed concern on China’s massive reclamation activities in disputed features the South China Sea, saying such action raises tensions the region.

Ambassador Bill Tweddell said Australia does not take sides on the competing claims by several Asian nations that include the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei, but stressed that it is in its interest to ensure peace and stability in the area.

“We are concerned, for example, on the land reclamation activities by China. It could raise tensions in the region,” he told journalists at the Australian-New Zealand Army Corps 100th commemoration launch.

US commander for Asia Admiral Samuel Locklear warned that China will eventually enforce an exclusion zone over the waters once the structures, which he referred to as outposts, has been completed.

“We call on governments to clarify and pursue their territorial claims and maritime rights in accordance to international law and that includes the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea or UNCLOS,” he said. [read more]

China dismisses PNoy’s call to fear Beijing

15.04.2015 (GMA News) - Beijing on Wednesday dismissed as "groundless" President Benigno Aquino III's warning that the Asian giant's actions in the South China Sea should "engender fear for the rest of the world."

Aquino made his remarks in an exclusive interview on Tuesday, saying that China's increasing bold assertions of its territorial claims could cut access for other nations to vital international shipping lanes and rich fishing grounds in the sea.

China's foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular briefing: "The relevant accusations by the Philippines are groundless."

China claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, using vague demarcation lines that first appeared on Chinese maps in the 1940s, locking it into territorial disputes with several of its neighbours. [read more]

South China Sea: China Is Building on the Paracels As Well

14.04.2015 By Victor Robert Lee (The Diplomat) - It’s not just the Spratlys, China is constructing military facilities on the Paracel Islands too. As Vietnam’s Communist Party Chief Nguyen Phu Trong met with China’s President Xi Jinping in Beijing last week, China’s government news service Xinhua extolled a “deep-rooted partnership” between the two nations. But 400 kilometers off Vietnam’s coast, in the Paracel Islands, China was rapidly consolidating its hold on islands that both countries vehemently claim as their own.

High-resolution satellite images from March 17 show that Woody Island, occupied by China since 1956, is undergoing a major expansion of its runway and airport facilities. Within the past five months, a 2,400-meter airstrip has been completely replaced with a new concrete runway measuring 2,920 meters in length, accompanied by a new taxiway, expanded runway aprons and adjacent large buildings under construction. Additional land reclamation is also underway on Woody Island, called Yongxing Dao in Chinese and Đảo Phú Lâm in Vietnamese. [read more]

Filipinas dice que hay que tener “miedo” de las reclamaciones territoriales de China

14.04.2015 (T13) - El presidente Benigno Aquino dijo que la reivindicación de varios arrecifes e islotes por parte de la nación asiática deberían asustar al resto del mundo.

La reivindicación por parte de China de varios arrecifes e islotes en el Mar de China Meridional debería suscitar "miedo" en el resto del mundo, aseguró este martes a la AFP el presidente filipino Benigno Aquino. [seguir leyendo]

Mer de Chine méridionale: les revendications de Pékin devraient faire peur au reste du monde

14.04.2015 (Romandie) - Manille - Les efforts de la Chine pour revendiquer la souveraineté de la majeure partie de la mer de Chine méridionale devraient faire peur à la communauté internationale, a déclaré mardi le président philippin Benigno Aquino.

Est-ce que cela provoque la peur? Oui je crois que cela devrait provoquer de la peur dans le reste du monde, a dit le président dans un entretien exclusif avec l'AFP au palais présidentiel à Manille. [en savoir plus]

Vietnam rüstet sich für die Neuzeit - Ho Chi Minhs pragmatische Enkel

14.04.2015 (NZZ) - In wirtschaftlichen und politischen Analysen steht das Akronym CLMV für Kambodscha, Laos, Myanmar und Vietnam. Es handelt sich um jene Staaten, die erst in den neunziger Jahren in die 1967 gegründete Assoziation südostasiatischer Nationen (Asean) aufgenommen worden sind, was hauptsächlich mit ihrer turbulenten Geschichte zusammenhängt. Und es handelt sich – auch das ist zum Teil kriegsbedingt – um ökonomische Spätzünder.

Als «Amerikas Dünkirchen» im Kalten Krieg wird das Vietnam-Debakel der USA von Historikern mittlerweile denn auch bezeichnet. Längst jedenfalls sind die Amerikaner und ihre Produkte hier wieder willkommen, ihre Rüstungsgüter – etwa Überwachungsflugzeuge – gar heiss begehrt. Es gilt, den neuen Hegemon im Norden, die Volksrepublik China, im Auge zu behalten und ihm Paroli zu bieten.

Vietnams Wirtschaft, seine Bevölkerung und ausländische Investoren stehen gewissermassen in den Startlöchern. Doch die politische Macht und darüber hinaus Schlüsselstellungen in der Industrie werden von engstirnigen Politikern gehalten, die um Einfluss und Vermögen oder beides bangen. [Weiterlesen]

China Accused Of Decade Of Cyber Attacks On Governments And Corporates In Asia

13.04.2015 (TechCrunch) - The Chinese government is accused of being behind a newly discovered set of cyber attacks waged against government agencies, corporate companies and journalists across India and Southeast Asia over the past ten years. Security firm FireEye released a report today revealing a spate of corporate espionage and cyber spying offenses against targets located in India, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Nepal, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia and beyond. The group said attacks began in 2005.

Boland referenced several pieces of evidence collected by FireEye following “months” of research. In particular, the existence of an operating manual written in Chinese, a code base that was seemingly developed by Chinese developers, and a related domain registered to a suspicious ‘tea company’ in rural China, all imply Chinese involvement. [read more] - [tiếng Việt]

Expertenbericht: China hinter langjähriger Cyberspionage in Asien vermutet

13.04.2015 (Spiegel Online) - Eine Hackergruppe soll Regierungen und Unternehmen in Südostasien und Indien ausspioniert und manipuliert haben. Die IT-Sicherheitsfirma FireEye vermutet China hinter den Aktionen.

Der Angriff war von langer Hand geplant, mit viel Aufwand und Zielbewusstsein durchgeführt worden. Am 11. März 2004 registrierte eine Hackergruppe eine Internet-Domain als anonymen Datenstützpunkt. Ein Jahr später stellten die Unbekannten die erste Version eines neuen Schadprogramms fertig, mit dem sie zielgenau Regierungs- und Wirtschaftsinstitutionen in Thailand, Südkorea, Vietnam, Indien und Malaysia angriffen.

Erst zehn Jahre später fiel den Sicherheitsexperten der IT-Firma FireEye die Masche auf, als sie immer mehr Exemplare der bislang unbekannten Malware auf besonders schützenswerten Computern entdeckten. [Weiterlesen] - [tiếng Việt]

La Chine accusée de cyberattaques contre des pays et des entreprises asiatiques

13.04.2015 par Vincent Manilève (Slate) - Un rapport à charge met en lumière 10 ans de cyberattaques et d’espionnages que la Chine aurait mis en place contre ses voisins.

La firme de sécurité FireEye vient de dévoiler un rapport d’une soixantaine de pages sur les mécanismes d’espionnage que la Chine aurait mis en place depuis 2005. Ce programme visait «les agences gouvernementales, les grandes compagnies et les journalistes d’Inde et d’Asie du Sud-Est», notamment lors des sommets de l’ASEAN (l’Association des nations de l'Asie du Sud-Est) explique le site Techcrunch. Il s’agissait avant tout de cibles possédant des informations clefs sur les intérêts chinois dans la région, aussi bien au niveau politique que militaire ou économique.

Plus de 200 sortes de malwares ont été détectés par la firme, qui s’est étonnée de voir que les responsables des attaques auraient même été capables d’espionner les systèmes coupés de tout réseau («air gap») dès 2006, une prouesse puisque «les premiers exemples venaient d’attaques russes en 2008 et 2009.» Sur son blog, le vice-président de FireEye Bryce Boland ajoute que le groupe «a été capable d’agir avec succès et de rester indétectable pendant des années sans changer l’infrastructure de ses attaques, un signe clair que leurs victimes n'ont pas conscience que c’est arrivé.» [en savoir plus] - [tiếng Việt]

Philippines says China's reclamation causing ecological damage

13.04.2015 (Reuters) - MANILA - The Philippines on Monday said China's reclamation work in the South China Sea had destroyed about 300 acres (1.2 sq km) of coral reef, causing annual estimated losses of US$100 million (S$137 million) to coastal nations.

China's rapid reclamation around seven reefs in the Spratly archipelago has alarmed other claimants, such as the Philippines and Vietnam, and prompted growing criticism from US government officials and the military.

The Philippines renewed its call on China to halt reclamation work, respect an informal code of conduct that Beijing signed with Southeast Asian nations in 2002, and work for long-term solutions to resolve maritime disputes peacefully. [read more] - [tiếng Việt]

Pékin construit une «grande muraille de sable» en Mer de Chine

13.04.2015 Par Patrick Saint-Paul (Le Figaro) - La pression monte entre Washington et Pékin à propos des revendications chinoises en mer de Chine méridionale. La semaine passée, Barack Obama a dit redouter que la République populaire n'abuse de «sa taille considérable et de ses muscles» pour les faire valoir. De nouvelles images satellites, publiées ces dernières semaines, montrent l'étendue et la rapide progression des constructions d'îles artificielles sur des récifs situés dans ces eaux troublées par la Chine, accusée d'ériger une «grande muraille de sable».

«Nous sommes inquiets quand la Chine ne s'en tient pas nécessairement aux normes et aux règles internationales, et quand elle utilise sa taille considérable et ses muscles pour contraindre des États à adopter une attitude de subordination, a déclaré le président des États-Unis. Nous pensons que cela peut être réglé par la voie diplomatique, mais le seul fait que les Philippines ou le Vietnam ne soient pas aussi vastes que la Chine ne les voue pas à être poussés du coude». [en savoir plus]

China Keeps Close Watch as Vietnam Builds U.S. Ties

12.04.2015 By Eric Baculinao (nbcnews) - BEIJING — While Vietnam's communist party chief was greeted with full honors as he visited neighboring China this week, the pomp barely papered over tensions between the countries over Hanoi's warming ties with Beijing's archrival: the United States.

Xi made a veiled reference to the ongoing tensions by warning Trong of the need to "control maritime disputes" over the South China Sea. He also called for "new paradigms" and "new approaches" for solving problems, underscoring the historical bonds of the two communist-led countries. ...

"Vietnam has taken a balancing strategy toward the great powers, but it is aware there is more space for cooperation with China, and there is a limit to cooperation with the U.S. because of Washington's pressure over Hanoi's human rights and political system," a Chinese maritime security scholar told NBC News.

"The worst-case scenario is a military partnership between Vietnam and the U.S. — that would have serious impact on Chinese interests," said the scholar, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue. [read more]

China, ¿el "bully" de los mares del Pacífico?

11.04.2015 Paloma Almoguera (Univision) - Pekín, 11 abr (EFE).- Las construcciones que China realiza en territorios disputados en el mar de la China Meridional, así como su reclamación de unas islas que le enfrentan a Japón en aguas más orientales, han suscitado inquietud y críticas internacionalmente, aunque Pekín niega ser el "bully" (abusón) del Pacífico.

Sobre las construcciones, que también incluyen islas artificiales en aguas disputadas, el Ministerio de Exteriores chino dijo la pasada semana que responden a "objetivos integrales" como la defensa nacional, labores de vigilancia o tareas humanitarias.

Filipinas no sólo se ha quejado en anteriores ocasiones, sino que elevó su protesta a la Corte Internacional de Justicia (CIJ) para dirimir el conflicto, proceso en el que China se negó a participar a finales de año. [seguir leyendo]

Vietnam must find a balance between ties with China, US

11.04.2015 Kang Lin (Want ChinaTimes) - General secretary Nguyen Phu Trong of the Communist Party of Vietnam paid a state visit to China April 7-10 at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. Nguyen, now 71, last visited China in October 2011, nine months after he was elected as Vietnam's top party leader. His latest visit to China, made three and a half years from the last one, has raised wide concerns from various sectors.

Given the "politically cold but economically hot" exchanges between the two nations, the real purpose behind Nguyen's latest visit to China is not very clear.  Whether Nguen's belated visit is designed to improve the stalemate in political diplomacy and change the "politically cold, economically hot" scenario, or just to retain Chinese investments in Vietnam, or only to solicit political support from China to facilitate his moves in the upcoming 12th National Congress of Vietnam Communist Party, remains to be observed. [read more] - [tiếng Việt]

Russland wendet sich ab

10.04.2015 (DRWN) - Die heute zu Ende gehende Reise des russischen Premierministers Dimitri Medwedjew nach Thailand und Vietnam hat zunächst einmal symbolische Bedeutung. Sie ist ein Schritt im Rahmen der vielbeschworenen Verlagerung des russischen politischen Schwerpunkts von Europa nach Asien (“pivot to Asia”). Auch wenn es nicht zur Unterzeichnung bahnbrechender Vereinbarungen kam, unterstreicht der Besuch der russischen Nummer zwei, dass Asien aus Moskauer Sicht mehr ist als nur China.

Das südchinesische Meer, von wachsenden Spannungen um Hoheitsrechte gekennzeichnet, gilt Experten heute schon als einer der wahrscheinlichsten Schauplätze des nächsten größeren Krieges. Sogar mit dem Bau künstlicher Inseln versucht China sein Anrecht auf Territorien zu untermauern, die gleichzeitig auch von den Philippinen, von Indonesien und von Vietnam beansprucht werden.

China birgt für seine Nachbarn mittel- und langfristig eine hegemoniale Gefahr. [Weiterlesen]

China cementing reach in South China Sea with civilian infrastructure

10.04.2015 By Greg Torode (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - HONG KONG - China's plans for islands it is creating in the South China Sea show for the first time the scale of civilian architecture it will extend across the disputed waterway, entrenching its reach in the maritime heart of Southeast Asia, experts say.

China's Foreign Ministry gave rare detail on Thursday, saying reclamation and building work in the Spratly archipelago would allow for scientific research, meteorological observation, environmental protection and fisheries services.

"They are trying to put a civilian sheen on this but I think people will see through this and see (the reclamations) for what they really are," said Ian Storey, a South China Sea expert at Singapore's Institute of South East Asian Studies.

Once complete, the facilities would help China project not just military power but also boost its oil exploration and fishing in the region, he said. [read more]

Vietnam strikes out at labour disputes

10.04.2015 Author: Tu Phuong Nguyen, ANU (East Asia Forum) - In January 2015, the Vietnamese government issued a decree on the implementation guidelines of the Vietnamese Labour Code. One of the sections of the decree deals with the resolution of workers’ strikes, which happen mostly in foreign enterprises. Though the numbers of strikes nationwide has declined, labour relations reform is still a government concern. The new decree stipulates a long bureaucratic process for strike settlement.

In reality all strikes are illegal because they do not strictly stem from disputes over interests, nor do they follow the legal procedures. It is almost impossible to envisage a legal strike, led by company or corporatist unions, due to institutional constraints. Though claiming to represent workers, company unions have their pockets tied to their bosses and corporatist unions have theirs tied to the state.

The Vietnam General Confederation of Labour is the only legitimate trade union in Vietnam. It has branches across all administrative levels of the state: federations of labour in cities and provinces, and upper-level unions in districts and municipalities, and in industrial zones. Leadership positions in upper-level unions are held by members of the Communist Party. Those branches are then in control of company unions in their areas. Employers often appoint leaders in company unions, sometimes with assistance from upper-level unions.

The new government decree rules that when an illegal strike breaks out, the employer is required to immediately report to the district or municipal government and upper-level unions.  [read more]

Systemic Tension between China and the US

10.04.2015 Denny Roy (ISN ETH Zurich) - Despite a mutual desire for cooperation, relations between Washington and Beijing will remain tense for the foreseeable future. Today, Denny Roy cites two reasons why – 1) Beijing doesn’t appreciate how the existing East Asian order has contributed to its prosperity, and 2) its historical fear of encirclement has decreased.

Both China and the United States want very much to avoid conflict. US officials have consistently said they “welcome” a stronger and more prosperous China, and in fact actual US policy does not inhibit China’s rise (although US policy does provide for an insurance policy of security cooperation should China threaten US allies). PRC officials tout a “new type of great power relations,” which begins with the hope of avoiding great power military conflict.

Under the present conditions, the outlook is a long period of high tension, ultimately resolved either by war, by one side acquiescing due to lack of confidence that it will ultimately prevail, or by the two sides gradually reaching compromises over the main issues that divide them. [read more]

Vietnam's balancing act: Can Russia adapt to change?

10.04.2015 Anton Tsvetov (Russia Beyond The Headlines) - It’s time to consider if there is anything that Russia can offer Vietnam that others can’t.

On April 6-7, 2015, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev visited to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV). Russian public opinion is accustomed to perceiving Vietnam as a traditional friend and partner, preferring to ignore potential disagreements that arise between the two countries. Meanwhile, Vietnam’s current foreign policy is complex and full of contradictions, and Moscow will have to adapt to this.

n terms of foreign policy, this implies the most pragmatic development of a wide network of partnerships. The Vietnamese leadership lost any trust in bloc solidarity since the Border War with China in 1979, and prefers to put its eggs in different baskets, trying to maintain good relations with China, the US and Russia, as well as India, Europe and other countries in East and Southeast Asia. [read more]

Inseln der Macht

10.04.2015 von Petra Kolonko, Peking (FAZ) - Mit Sand und Zement baut China auf Korallenriffen seinen Gebietsanspruch im Südchinesischen Meer aus – weit draußen vor der Küste. Bilder belegen nun, wie systematisch Peking dabei vorgeht. Der amerikanische Präsident Obama übt heftige Kritik.

Im Streit um die Gebietsansprüche im Südchinesischen Meer versucht die Volksrepublik China, mit Landgewinnung und Bauten auf umstrittenen Inseln und Atollen Fakten zu schaffen. Neue Satellitenaufnahmen zeigen, dass das Atoll „Mischief Reef“, das von China kontrolliert, aber auch von den Philippinen und von Vietnam beansprucht wird, in nur wenigen Wochen gewachsen ist und die dort existierenden Hütten durch feste Bauten ersetzt werden. Nach dem Seerechtsübereinkommen der Vereinten Nationen stehen jedem Land 200 Seemeilen vor der Küste als exklusive Wirtschaftszone zu. China beansprucht im Südchinesischen Meer ein riesiges Gebiet, das mehr als tausend Kilometer von seiner Küste entfernt liegt – und beruft sich dabei auf die sogenannte „Neun-Striche“-Linie, die noch zu Zeiten der Republik China in den vierziger Jahren festgelegt wurde. Nach dieser Grenzziehung würden 90 Prozent des Südchinesischen Meeres, in dem es große Öl- und Gasvorkommen gibt und durch das wichtige internationale Schifffahrtslinien verlaufen, zum Hoheitsgebiet der Volksrepublik gehören. [Weiterlesen]

China verbittet sich Einmischung der USA

10.04.2015 (Die Welt) - Schlagabtausch im Inselstreit: Präsident Obama rügt das irreguläre Vorgehen der Volksrepublik im Territorialkonflikt. Peking kontert prompt. Länder ohne regionale Ansprüche sollten sich zurückhalten.

US-Präsident Barack Obama hat China vor aggressivem Verhalten im Streit mit seinen Nachbarländern über Gebiete im Südchinesischen Meer gewarnt. Die Volksrepublik halte sich bei ihren Territorialstreitigkeiten nicht immer an "internationale Normen und Regeln", sagte Obama in Jamaika.

China wies die US-Vorwürfe zurück, nach denen es im Streit um Gebiete im Südchinesischen Meer zur Einschüchterung seiner Nachbarn die Muskeln spielen lasse.

In der Region gibt es seit Jahren mehrere territoriale Konflikte. So beansprucht China fast das gesamte Südchinesische Meer für sich – einschließlich von Regionen vor den Küsten von Vietnam, Malaysia und den Philippinen. Peking beruft sich dabei auf "historische Rechte", die das Land zunehmend aggressiv durchsetzen will. [Weiterlesen]

Berichte über Angriffe auf US-Internetseiten: China feuert mit neuer Cyber-Kanone

10.04.2015 (Spiegel Online) - China geht im Kampf um die Hoheit im Netz in die Offensive, befürchten Forscher aus den USA und Kanada. Einem Bericht zufolge blockieren Zensoren der Volksrepublik nicht nur unliebsame Inhalte, sondern verfügen auch über eine neue Cyber-Waffe.

Auf vielen Wegen verbannen chinesische Behörden unerwünschte Inhalte aus dem Netz - oder besser: Meist blockieren sie den Zugang dazu. All die Maßnahmen heißen im Westen oft "Great Firewall". Allerdings haben findige Nutzer immer wieder Schlupflöcher gefunden und die Regierungsfilter ausgetrickst.

Jetzt, so berichtet die "New York Times", deutet einiges darauf hin, dass zur "Great Firewall" eine "Great Cannon" hinzugekommen ist, eine Art Angriffswaffe im Kampf um die Hoheit im Netz. Demnach hat China große Datenmengen umgeleitet, um Websites in den USA zu überlasten. Bei den attackierten Seiten handelt es sich um Dienste, die es chinesischen Nutzern ermöglichen, in ihrem Land blockierte Websites anzusteuern. [Weiterlesen]

China's 'Great Cannon': Taking censorship across country borders

10.04.2015 By Charlie Osborne (ZDNet) - China has developed a new censorship weapon to accompany its Great Firewall in order to silence not only its citizens -- but critics around the globe.

According to a report released Friday by Citizen Lab, the 'Great Cannon' was first used against GitHub and Greatfire.org servers, both incidents of which were high-profile DDoS attacks designed to deny access to materials criticizing China's regime, censorship tools and copies of websites banned in the country.

Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, University of Toronto's Citizen LabCitizen Lab, the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI) and Princeton University suggest in the paper that these attacks were orchestrated by China's censorship barricade. [read more]

Inselstreit: Obama warnt China vor aggressivem Verhalten

10.04.2015 (Spiegel Online) - US-Präsident Obama hat China aufgefordert, sich im Inselstreit im Südchinesischen Meer nicht mit seiner Größe durchzusetzen. Peking halte sich nicht immer an internationale Regeln und stoße kleinere Staaten beiseite.

China ist groß. Sehr groß. Deshalb versucht die Volksrepublik, sich mit Machtspielen bei den Territorialstreitigkeiten im Südchinesischen Meer durchzusetzen. Der Meinung ist jedenfalls US-Präsident Barack Obama: Er forderte Peking auf, sich im Streit mit den Nachbarländern an "internationale Normen und Regeln" zu halten und kleinere Länder nicht in untergeordnete Positionen zu drängen.

"Nur weil die Philippinen oder Vietnam nicht so groß sind wie China, heißt das nicht, dass sie einfach beiseite gestoßen werden können", sagte Obama in Jamaika. Mehrere Staaten streiten schon seit Jahren um das rohstoffreiche Territorium im Südchinesischen Meer. Um Stärke zu zeigen, schickt China immer wieder Schiffe in das Gebiet. [Weiterlesen]

China building ‘Great Wall of Sand’ in disputed Spratly Islands

China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines have claims on Spratlys, but China is moving fast with construction over live coral reefs

10.04.2015 By David Tweed, Bloomberg (The Star) - HONG KONG —The pace at which China is building islands in the South China Sea has been shown by satellite photos lending weight to claims by U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander Harry Harris that China is building a “great wall of sand.”

The photos, published by an initiative of the Washington- based Centre for Strategic and International Studies, focus on China’s reclamation efforts in the Spratly Islands on Mischief Reef, a feature also claimed by Vietnam, the Philippines and Taiwan.

Artificial islands could help China anchor its territorial claims and potentially develop bases in waters that host some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. Disputes over the South China Sea, of which China claims about four-fifths under a so-called nine-dash line drawn on a 1940s map, have escalated as China expands the reach of its military. [read more]

A Breakthrough in US-Vietnam Relations

10.04.2015 By Alexander L. Vuving (The Diplomat) - Emerging as one of the key bilateral relationships in the Asia-Pacific, ties between the United States and Vietnam have experienced a significant breakthrough in recent times. Somewhat below the radar of the international press, this breakthrough was embodied in the March 15-20 visit to Washington by Vietnam’s Minister of Public Security Tran Dai Quang. Perhaps the media paid little attention to this trip because it was seen as a routine exchange at the minister level. But Quang’s mission was far from routine, and the contents of his talks indicated a qualitative change in U.S.-Vietnam relations.

Heading one of the two most powerful ministries in the Vietnamese government (the other is the Ministry of National Defense), Quang is also a key member of Vietnam’s collective leadership, the Communist Party’s Politburo. Vietnamese news sources reported that he travelled to the United States primarily as a Politburo member and the trip’s main purpose was to prepare for the inaugural visit in June by Vietnam’s supreme leader, General Secretary of the Communist Party Nguyen Phu Trong. [read more]

Russia's 'Go East' policy shakes up Asia

09.04.2015 By Humphrey Hawksley (Nikkei Asian Review) - For several years now, Russia and China, with very different methods, have been testing their strengths in areas each considers to be in its legitimate arc of influence.

Russia's approach is more raw, focusing on military muscle and energy supplies. China's is more nuanced, deploying its economic strength and legendary patience, while assertively probing neighbors in the East and South China seas and experimenting with the will of its biggest rival, Japan.

Moscow's Go East policy comprises diplomatic, economic and military elements. Joint military exercises with China are now commonplace. Last August, in the East China Sea, Russian and Chinese units worked side by side for the first time, and further exercises are planned in the Pacific and Mediterranean. [read more]

Obama says concerned China uses size to bully others in region

09.04.2015 By Emily Stephenson (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Thursday the United States is concerned China uses its "sheer size and muscle" to push around smaller countries in the South China Sea.

His comments come after China defended its construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea, saying it is needed to safeguard its sovereignty in the mineral-rich waters where China's territorial claims overlap those of Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan. [read more]

New images show China's reclamation on Mischief Reef in South China Sea

09.04.2015 (AsiaOne) - Newly published satellite images show that China is quickly reclaiming land around a submerged reef within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone, with several dredgers in operation and seawalls built. The work on Mischief Reef is China's most recent reclamation in the disputed Spratly archipelago of the South China Sea. Reclamation is well advanced on six other reefs in the Spratlys, Reuters reported in February, activities that have alarmed other claimants and drawn criticism from Washington. In an interview with Japan's Yomiuri newspaper published on Wednesday, US Secretary of Defence Ash Carter expressed concern about China's reclamation in the Spratlys. "We are especially concerned at the prospect of militarisation of these outposts," said Carter, who is in Tokyo on his first visit to Asia as defence chief.

Beijing rejects criticism of its activities around the reefs, saying the work falls "within the scope of China's sovereignty". [read more]

Beijing’s strategy in the South China Sea: propaganda and the use of force

09.04.2015 By David Millar (AsiaNews) - Beijing – Some satellite images released today show China claiming lands within the Philippines Economic Zone in the South China Sea. With the use of dredgers and the construction of dams, the Chinese are moving earth to submerged reefs, creating artificial islets. In addition to the long-standing claim to the Mischief Reefs (occupied by the Chinese in 1995 and claimed by Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines), China is illegally occupying six other reefs in the Spratlys islands. China’s action on the coral reefs began in February. Satellite images show that the man-made land will host.

As it continues its acts of intimidation, Beijing also pursues its propaganda, based on preaching peaceful solutions and bilateral treaties to resolve conflicts. Here is the first report in a study by the Bush School of Government and Public Service on the policies and propaganda strategies used by China to back its actions, often by hiding the facts. [read more]

Dearth of wives for Chinese men prompts bride trafficking

09.04.2015 Manabu Ito, Nikkei staff writer (Nikkei Asian Review) - PHNOM PENH -- China's one-child policy is skewing the nation's sex ratio, making it almost impossible for many men to find wives and causing some of  them to marry women trafficked from Southeast Asian countries.

Trafficking of women to China as forced brides is a serious and growing problem in Southeast Asia. According to a report, "Overview of Cambodian Women Being Trafficked to China," released in last July by the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC), a nongovernmental organization in Cambodia, during the first six months of 2014, about a quarter of the cases in which ADHOC intervened were women forced to go to China.

It has also been reported that many women are being trafficked from Myanmar and Vietnam in recent years. Brokers of brides first started trafficking them into rural areas from other parts of China. But as it becomes more difficult for young Chinese men to find spouses, they are expanding the search to women in Southeast Asia who are often poorer and easier to trick. [read more]

What’s Next for US-Vietnam Relations?

A brief look at some areas that might see further cooperation this year and beyond

08.04.2015 By Prashanth Parameswaran (The Diplomat) - This year marks the 20th anniversary of the normalization of U.S.-Vietnam diplomatic relations. Commemorating the occasion offers an opportunity not only to consider how far both sides have come, but also to think about how the relationship might move forward in the future.

On March 27, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, hosted a rare event with the two ambassadors – Pham Quang Vinh and Ted Osius – about the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead for the relationship (Ambassador Vinh has written about his thoughts on U.S.-Vietnam relations for The Diplomat here). At that event, U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Ted Osius outlined five key areas where Washington and Hanoi could use the momentum of the 20th anniversary to advance cooperation – both bilaterally but also increasingly regionally and globally as well. While these areas are not necessarily ones that Vietnam would disagree with, it is interesting to look at each of of them to see what might be next for U.S.-Vietnam relations. [read more]

US warns China and its rivals against militarisation of territorial disputes

08.04.2015 (The Guardian) - US Secretary of Defence Ash Carter kicked off his first Asian tour on Wednesday with a stern warning against the militarisation of territorial rows in a region where China is at odds with several nations in the East and South China Seas.

Carter’s visit to Japan coincides with growing US concern over China’s land reclamation in the Spratly archipelago of the disputed South China Sea, where Beijing has rival claims with several countries including the Philippines and Vietnam. [read more]

Vietnam’s Impossible Bind: How to Stand Up to Beijing

07.04.2015 By Andrew Browne (WSJ) - HANOI—On a fence-mending visit to Beijing this week, Vietnam’s top Communist official will face a dilemma that has dogged his country’s leaders for much of the past millennium: how to show deference to China without appearing meek back home.

Today, Hanoi’s dilemma is particularly acute. An economy increasingly dependent on China adds pressure to get along with Beijing. Yet, after China last May dragged a gigantic oil drilling rig into disputed waters, public sentiment is running heavily against the neighbor to the north.

A Pew survey last year showed that 84% of Vietnamese worry that China’s territorial assertiveness could lead to war. [read more]

Vietnam Party Chief Visits China After Maritime Dispute

07.04.2015 Colin Nguyen (VOA) - Chinese President Xi Jinping and Nguyen Phu Trong, the head of Vietnam's ruling Communist Party, have met in Beijing as part of efforts to repair relations that have been strained over maritime disputes in the South China Sea.

China's state media says Xi said the two countries must properly manage their disputes over the South China Sea to create a peaceful and stable environment in the region.

Trong is leading a high-ranking delegation to Beijing for a three-day visit following China's controversial deployment of a oil rig in disputed waters last year. [read more]

What Vietnam Must Now Do

06.04.2015 By Tuong Lai (The New York Times) - Ho Chi Minh City — Vietnam must sign on to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the United States-backed comprehensive trade plan. The agreement would allow Vietnam’s economy to become fully integrated with the rest of the industrialized world, and with that would come the prospect of further democratization at home.

But Vietnam cannot play its significant geopolitical role until it fully develops economically and further liberalizes politically. And adopting the T.P.P.’s requirements — free trade unions, reduced state participation in the economy, greater transparency — will help Vietnam along that route. [read more] - [tiếng Việt]

Why are Vietnam factory workers striking against new pension law?

06.04.2015 By Edward Barbour-Lacey (Asian Correspondent) - Thousands of Vietnamese workers have been striking peacefully outside of the Pou Yuen shoe factory in Ho Chi Minh City. Interestingly, unlike previous protests, this strike is not directed at the poor policies of their employer, but is instead focused on a controversial new government pension law.

The new pension law that the government has instituted seeks to change the current pensions system, where workers pay a monthly sum to a central fund. If the workers became unemployed, they could receive a lump sum payment, which equals the premiums paid. However, in the new version of the law, workers will only be able to receive these payouts after they retire (the retirement age is 60 for men and 55 for women), and the amount will be distributed on a monthly basis rather than given as a lump sum. Additionally, only a small amount of workers will be eligible for unemployment payouts. [read more]

Vietnam's Communist Party chief to visit China

06.04.2015 By Tan Qiuyi (Channel NewsAsia) - HANOI: Vietnam’s Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong heads to China on Tuesday (Apr 7) for a four-day visit at a time when the two countries are experiencing what analysts call a trust deficit.

The visit will take place almost one year after a diplomatic firestorm between the two countries over the deployment of a Chinese oil rig in the South China Sea last May. The incident triggered months of sea skirmishes and anti-China protests in Vietnam, plunging Sino-Vietnamese ties to a historic low.

Francois Godement, Director of Asia/China Programe at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said: “Vietnam and China remain friends, because of the regime factor. No one has an interest to destabilise the other, and that’s the limit of the irritation and disagreements we have seen.

"But I think it’s a very tough relation, a hard bargaining position, and one in which China clearly asserts what I would call tributary dominance. That is of course Vietnam’s problem today.” [read more]

Vietnam Faces Pension System Crisis as It Tries to Calm Strikers

05.04.2015 By Nguyen Dieu Tu Uyen & John Boudreau (Bloomberg) -  Vietnam may be forced to water down a new law designed to shore up its pension system after tens of thousands of workers protested against the changes in a strike that lasted nearly a week.

Four factories employing more than 90,000, owned by Taiwanese footwear manufacturer Pou Chen Corp., halted production last week as workers protested new pension rules that go into effect next year aimed at boosting the retirement program. The new law prevents laborers from being eligible for lump-sum social insurance payments when they leave companies. To bring back those on strike, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s government will propose amendments to the law to meet worker’s demands of payouts when they quit a job. [read more]

Philippines making waves over China's moves in disputed waters

04.04.2015 By Ralph Jennings (LA Times) - China's moves to explore for oil and undertake land reclamation projects on contested islets in the South China Sea have upset a number of its neighbors, including Vietnam. But none has taken a tougher stance against Beijing's moves than the Philippines.

The archipelago has shaped up as the loudest voice in Southeast Asia against China's show of strength in the Pacific. The Philippines has detained Chinese boats, arrested fishermen and lodged a formal United Nations protest against Beijing.

Manila's boldness is underpinned by two facts: Unlike many of China's neighbors, the Philippines has relatively little to lose if Beijing retaliates economically. And, unlike several South China Sea neighbors, the Philippines enjoys military support from the United States. [read more]

Vietnams Rentendilemma

02.04.2015 Rodion Ebbighausen/Gabriel Dominguez (dw) - Nach sieben Tagen gingen die Großproteste in Vietnams Textilbranche zu Ende. Zuvor hatte die Regierung einer Änderung des umstrittenen Sozialversicherungsgesetzes zugestimmt. Diese löst aber das Kernproblem nicht.

Die Betreiberfirma des größten betroffenen Werks, Pou Chen Vietnam, beschäftigt rund 90.000 Mitarbeiter und produziert unter anderem für Adidas und Nike. Der Unmut der Arbeiter richtete sich allerdings nicht gegen die Arbeitsbedingungen, sondern gegen eine gesetzliche Neuregelung der staatlichen Rentenversicherung. [Weiterlesen]

Vietnam Factory Workers End Strike After Pledge to Amend Insurance Law

02.04.2015 (RFA) - Thousands of employees at a factory in southern Vietnam returned to work Thursday after a week-long strike after the central government agreed to amend a policy on social insurance coverage that had prompted the unrest.

"The government has agreed to request the National Assembly—Vietnam's legislature—to amend the term in the Social Insurance Law and allow employees to continue receiving lump sum payments if they no longer wish to stay in the state's pension program,” it said.

Nguyen Quang, the former director of the Institute of Development Studies think tank in Vietnam, told RFA’s Vietnamese Service that the strike served as a lesson to the government to include the public in policy decisions.

“The people’s spirit must be included in policy-making, but in a one-party regime there is no limit to power,” he said. [read more]

Miles hacen huelga en fábrica de zapatos en Vietnam

01.04.2015 (Univision) - HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Miles de trabajadores vietnamitas de una gran fábrica de calzado hicieron huelga el miércoles por sexto día consecutivo en protesta por una ley de seguridad social, en un poco frecuente desafío a la política del gobierno.

Los obreros protestaban por una ley que entra en vigor el año que viene e indica que los trabajadores recibirán una asignación mensual cuando se retiren, en lugar de recibir un pago puntal si renuncian al empleo.

En Vietnam se producen varios cientos de huelgas al año, por lo general debidas a malas condiciones de trabajo y pobres salarios. Las protestas contra medidas del gobierno son poco frecuentes. [seguir leyendo]

Protest gegen Änderungen im Sozialrecht - Arbeiter bestreiken Fabrik in Vietnam

01.04.2015 (ARD) - Sie produzieren Schuhe für Adidas und Nike, doch seit sechs Tagen wird in der Fabrik in einem Vorort von Ho Chi Minh Stadt gestreikt. Tausende Arbeiter sind im Arbeitskampf - als Protest gegen geplante Änderungen im Sozialrecht. Tausende Arbeiter haben in Vietnam den sechsten Tag in Folge die Schuhfabrik eines Eigentümers bestreikt, bei dem auch Marken wie Nike und Adidas produzieren lassen. Bislang blieben die Protestveranstaltungen in und vor der Fabrik in einem Vorort von Ho Chi Minh Stadt friedlich.

Die Mitarbeiter des Werks wehren sich gegen Änderungen im Sozialrecht. Demnach sollen sie ab 2016 im Falle ihrer Kündigung keine Einmalzahlung mehr erhalten, sondern einen monatlichen Zuschuss zur Sozialversicherung. Dieser würde allerdings erst fällig, wenn sie das Rentenalter erreicht haben: Männer wenn sie 60 sind und Frauen mit 55 Jahren. Die Streikenden verlangen jedoch eine sofortige Abfindung, um einen finanziellen Puffer zu haben, bis sie eine neue Anstellung finden. [Weiterlesen]