| Jan 1990 | The Vietnamese ambassador to China and the Chinese ambassador to Vietnam hosted a reception in Hanoi and Beijing respectively on January 18 to mark the 40th anniversary of Sino-Vietnamese diplomatic relations. In addition, the Vietnamese Federation for Peace, Unity and Friendship and the Vietnamese-Chinese Friendship Society also sponsored a tea to mark the anniversary and to celebrate the Vietnamese and Chinese Spring Festival. |
| Oct 1990 | Hanoi Radio broadcasts an article by Nguyen Su decrying the "bad elements" who help people leave the country "In recent years the enemy has spared no efforts in abetting or persuading Vietnamese nationals to flee to other countries to smear our regime in the international arena, raging against the social order, and recruiting and training spies and commandos for infiltration back into Vietnam...Regarding their tricks, they usually rely on existing relations to establish contacts, using a Catholic to deal with other Catholics and a Hoa (Vietnamese of Chinese descent) to deal with other Hoa people" (Voice of Vietnam, Home Service, 1430 gmt, 10/14/90). |
| Jun 1991 | Sweeping leadership changes took place in Hanoi at the 7th Party Congress and this is viewed as a hard-line reaction to fears of a spillover of anti-communism from Eastern Europe. The replacement of Nguyen Van Linh as Party Chief by Premier Do Muoi indicated continued faith in market-based economic reform; but politically, the swing of anti-communism was back to communist orthodoxy, with a strong, new pro-China slant. The main symbol of this was the sacking of Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thatch, who was opposed to China. The Chinese also seem delighted with the leadership shuffles in Vietnam and soon after the event, Chinese leaders let it be known that they completely agreed with Hanoi's Party Congress (The US CIA, The World Factbook, July 1992). The Congress also outlined a new decree relating to the Hoa in Vietnam. Along with guaranteeing the Chinese all civil rights and duties, respect for their culture and script were singled out. It was also noted that the Hoa could play a positive role in helping to normalize relations between Vietnam and the PRC (Amer, 1997, 22-23). |
| Nov 1991 | Historical enemies, China and Vietnam, normalized diplomatic relations after the two countries fell out and fought a brief war in 1979. The Joint Communique laid down the principles governing relations between the two communist parties and the two countries. The normalization of relations followed Vietnam's efforts to reduce tensions at their common border and to increase economic ties with other Asian countries including China. The loss of aid and trade with the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe has hurt Vietnam. |
| Jan 1992 | Dozens of mixed Vietnamese-Chinese families in Hong Kong refugee camps have been forced to split up because Beijing agrees to accept only Chinese residents and Hanoi only Vietnamese, the Hong Kong government said. (Reuters, 01/04/93). |
| Feb 1992 | As relations between China and Vietnam are back to normal, the question being raised is whether some of the 280,000 Vietnamese refugees who settled in southern China will want to go back home. However, one report suggests most of the Vietnamese refugees who flooded into southern China in the late 1970s hope to find their fortune in China. China says the refugees are free to go back as long as they can be sure of having as good a life as they have here. (Reuters, 02/09/92). China which stopped granting asylum in 1989, has one of the largest caseloads of refugees in East Asia. Guangxi, the autonomous region bordering Vietnam, is home to more than one third of China's total refugees. Unlike other countries, where refugees are kept in camps reliant on international agencies for food handouts, the Chinese Project aims to help them reach self-sufficiency, says Pierre Fontaine, head of the China mission of the UNHCR. Since 1979, the UN has spent about $74 million on the rehabilitation project. China says it has spent 10 times as much. (Reuters, 02/09/92). Integrating the Chinese refugees into China has been made easier than in other countries because more than 90% of the Vietnamese are ethnic Chinese, and many grew up speaking Cantonese, the dialect of southern China. Most of the settlers live and work on the huge state farms created for refugees and other overseas Chinese who wanted to return to the mainland. Now the refugee project is branching out into the service industry, building hotels and restaurants where the Vietnamese can work and earn money. A Vietnamese-Chinese Community Services Association was formed in British Columbia, Canada, to specifically deal with the refugee problems of the Vietnamese Chinese. "The Vietnamese Chinese are not used to getting help from social workers...our customs and ways of living are a combination of Chinese and Vietnamese", says Bang Luu, founder of the organization. |
| Aug 1992 | Hong Kong carried out its largest ever forced repatriation of Vietnamese boat people, sending 60 people to Hanoi against their will. Asia Watch warned that some boat people forced to return to Vietnam could face reprisals from the government in Hanoi. Opposition to forced repatriation was once led by the US, but it has been accused of double standards after Washington sent boat people back to Haiti. |
| Sep 1992 | China's Vice Foreign Minister visited Vietnam to discuss with host country officials the two fundamental issues that lie at the heart of the dispute between the two neighbors one is the vexed question of their maritime border, and the other is the less contentious question of land borders. The third major difference -- the status of Vietnamese of Chinese origin -- reportedly was not on the agenda (AFP, 09/04/93). |
| Nov 1992 | China will provide Vietnam with some $20 million in credit under one of the four agreements signed between the two former adversaries during the visit of Li Peng to Hanoi, the first in 21 years by a Chinese Premier. China Daily reported that China's drive to promote trade with Vietnam, exemplified by a trade fair in Hanoi, was being held in part to counter Taiwan's economic influence. |
| Feb 1993 | Vietnam's ethnic Chinese, once a persecuted minority, are reported to have become the country's major link to big-time investors from countries like Taiwan and Hong Kong. Although thousands of Chinese fled the country after 1979, about one million still live in Ho Chi Minh City, and their contacts with friends and relatives who fled abroad have been a key factor in the increase in foreign investment in Vietnam in the last two to three years (Inter Press Service, 02/16/93). |
| Jul 1993 | The EC is prepared to sign an economic and development cooperation pact with Vietnam, provided Hanoi respects human rights and democratic principles. A message to this effect was conveyed to Vietnamese Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet during talks in Brussels with the EC Commissioner responsible for development aid cooperation. The EC provides humanitarian aid to Vietnam -- in 1991 it was around $35 million and in 1992 about $55 million. The EC is also involved in a cooperation program aimed at facilitating the re-integration of the Vietnamese boat refugees by creating jobs through loans to individuals and small private businesses (Inter Press Service, 07/02/93). According to UNHCR, about 39,000 boat refugees have been re-integrated thus far. It is estimated that 500,000 boat people -- mainly ethnic Chinese -- have left the country since the late 1970s when relations between China and Vietnam seriously deteriorated following the latter's occupation of Cambodia, which was then a Chinese ally. Nguyen Van Than, Chairman of the Free Vietnam Alliance (Brussels-based), who is also working for the Int'l Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), said little has changed over the years in the human rights situation in Vietnam. |
| Aug 1993 | Illegal Vietnamese immigrants from China say they want to emigrate to a third country. Hong Kong officials want to send the 2,194 migrants back to China as soon as possible. |
| Dec 1993 | A group of 460 Chinese-Vietnamese boat people will return to China by the middle of the month. So far, 1043 people have been repatriated (Reuters, 12/13/93). |
| Feb 1994 | US President Clinton has lifted the long-standing trade embargo against Vietnam. The embargo was imposed in 1975 after the fall of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City). The move is seen as a first step towards the full normalization of relations. (New York Times, 07/12/95) |
| Feb 17, 1994 | The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, said that "A chapter is coming to an end in Indochina and Southeast Asia". He was referring to what others have called the end of the era of the Vietnamese boat people. From now on, any Vietnamese who flee will no longer be automatically entitled to a grant of asylum as political refugees. Rather, they will be treated as asylum-seekers from any other country. About 60,000 boat people remain in camps in Asia. Most will be returned to Vietnam, even if they have to be forcibly repatriated. They are considered economic migrants rather than refugees (New York Times, 02/17/94). |
| Apr 1994 | Chinese intellectuals in Ho Chi Minh City met with Comrade Vo Tran Chi, a member of the Political Bureau and secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City party committee. The Chinese expressed their support for rebuilding the country (BBC, 04/30/94). |
| Jun 1994 | It is reported that since Vietnam embarked on an economic liberalization program in the late 1980s, the country's ethnic Chinese have slowly become involved in this process. A new breed of Chinese millionaires has emerged. They are born and bred in Vietnam, speak Vietnamese and Cantonese, and are reported to be well respected in society. Native ethnic Chinese and Vietnamese businessmen in Vietnam are not provided with special treatment by the government. Rather they have to compete with foreign investors that are often provided with benefits such as tax holidays. However, while the Hanoi government is hopeful that the Chinese will play a bigger role in the country, concerns still remain about one group dominating the economy. A preferred model for many people is a prosperous Chinese community that does not dominate economically as in the case in Indonesia (Business Times, 06/30/94). During the early 1990s, official efforts have also focused on reintegrating the ethnic Chinese into Vietnamese society. In Ho Chi Minh City, a society was established to help prepare a Chinese curriculum and raise funds for Chinese educational programs. Measures have also been taken to encourage Hoa students to obtain higher education but so far it is reported that they haven't been as effective as efforts at the primary school level (Amer, 1997, 23). |
| Oct 1994 | Reports indicate that Vietnam's economic center, Ho Chi Minh City, has witnessed a rise in tensions between locals and the ethnic Chinese community. A woman and her accomplice were recently sentenced in court for selling her 13-year old daughter's virginity to a Taiwan businessman. Locals allege that some Chinese merchants believe that their fortunes can be improved by sleeping with virgins (Asiaweek, 10/26/94). Also, on October 13, seven Chinese nationals and three Taiwanese were wounded when a grenade exploded at a city tourist spot. Police stated that anti-Chinese feelings were not involved in the attack (Asiaweek, 10/26/94). |
| Nov 1994 | It is reported that most registered voters in areas of Ho Chi Minh City with large Chinese populations participated in this month's municipal elections. Four ethnic Chinese were elected to the city's 85-member People's Council in comparison to 2 in 1989. While this is an improvement, the Chinese are still underrepresented in relation to their population in Ho Chi Minh City (Amer, 1997, 24). |
| Nov 3, 1994 | A human rights group, Refugees Concern, demanded that the Hong Kong government release 400 people from detention as the group said they were ineligible to return to Vietnam. Of the refugees, 300 are ethnic Chinese. Refugees Concern has threatened to take legal action to secure the refugees' release. Around 24,000 refugees still remain in Hong Kong refugee camps. They must all be repatriated by the end of 1995, according to the 1989 Comprehensive Plan of Action (Reuters, 11/03/94). |
| Nov 15, 1994 | 125 Vietnamese have been released from refugee camps in Hong Kong but the Hong Kong government denies that the action was taken in response to potential legal action by Refugees Concern. Vietnam has refused to take the 125 people back as they include some ethnic Chinese. They are free to seek jobs in Hong Kong or await possible emigration to a third country (Reuters, 11/15/94). |
| Nov 17, 1994 | The Chinese government says that 125 Vietnamese just released from refugee camps in Hong Kong should not be allowed to work in the British colony. China believes that the boat people have created law and order problems in Hong Kong (Reuters, 11/17/94). |
| Nov 20, 1994 | China's President Jiang Zemin arrived in Hanoi for a three-day official good-will visit. Jiang is the first head of the Communist Party to ever visit Vietnam. He met with members of the ethnic Chinese community in Ho Chi Minh City. Jiang and the Hanoi government agreed that there were vast areas for economic cooperation between the two countries. Jiang's visit is reported to have marked the beginning of a more comfortable phase not only between the two countries but also for Vietnam's Chinese community (Japan Economic Newswire, 11/20/94; Business Times, 11/30/94). |
| Nov 30, 1994 | Some of the ethnic Chinese in Ho Chi Minh's Chinatown indicate that there are no problems with the country's Vietnamese population. In the Chinatown area, most of the Chinese are involved in small-scale industries and have established dozens of clan associations. Their links with the Chinese community in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore are also reported to have helped promote foreign investment in Vietnam. The ethnic Chinese in the three Southeast Asian countries reportedly account for approximately 40% of the US$ 10 billion that has recently entered Vietnam. However, some Vietnamese are critical of the tendency of the overseas Chinese to establish business cliques and there is simmering resentment against those Chinese who have quickly acquired wealth (Business Times, 11/30/94). |
| Jan 1995 | Fifty-four boat people returned to Guangxi province in southern China. The fifty-four are ethnic Chinese who fled Vietnam, moved to China, and later fled to Hong Kong (Reuters, 01/06/95). |
| Jan 24, 1995 | Fourteen refugees have been released from years in detention in Hong Kong. The group was part of the original 400 that a human rights organization, Refugees Concern, believed should be released as Vietnam had refused to take them back. Most are ethnic Chinese (Reuters, 01/24/95). |
| Mar 1995 | The half-million Chinese in Ho Chi Minh City are reported to control from 30 to 50% of local commercial activity, according to academics. The Chinese account for around 1/7 of the city's population (Asian Wall Street Journal Weekly, 03/25/95). |
| Mar 20, 1995 | Around 70 Vietnamese protested their pending repatriation to China in detention centers in Hong Kong. Most are ethnic Chinese who fled Vietnam for China in the late 1970s and then came to Hong Kong. Hanoi does not consider them to be nationals and thus will not accept them. During the past year, periodic protests have been reported in refugee camps in Hong Kong. In January, an outbreak of arson fires preceded a forcible repatriation flight to Hanoi (Reuters, 03/27/95). |
| Jul 1995 | Full diplomatic relations have been restored between the United States and Vietnam, twenty years after the pullout of the last American troops from Saigon. The establishment of diplomatic ties follows US President Clinton's 1994 removal of trade sanctions against Vietnam (New York Times, 07/12/95). |
| Aug 1995 | The Communist Party of Vietnam adopts Decree No. 62 which reaffirms that the ethnic Chinese are Vietnamese citizens with the same rights and duties as all other citizens. Cultural and educational rights are guaranteed, such as the teaching of Mandarin in schools. The decree also includes provisions to mobilize the economic potential of the Chinese community. It does not include any references to restrictions on the employment of Hoa in any sector; these were part of the 1982 party decree (Amer, 1997, 24). |
| Aug 16, 1995 | Michael Backman, the author of a report recently released by the Australian Foreign Affairs Department, states that the ethnic Chinese have established a remarkable dominance over the economies of some East Asian countries in which they are minorities. He indicates that the Chinese in Vietnam are staging a comeback and that generally overseas Chinese communities tend to "eschew direct political involvement in favor of business" (Financial Times, 08/16/95). |
| Feb 1996 | More than 100 ethnic Chinese protest in a Hong Kong detention center against their possible deportation to China. They fled to China from Vietnam in the late 1970s before arriving in Hong Kong in the early 1990s. Their applications for refugee status have been denied (South China Morning Post, 02/13/96). |
| Mar 1996 | Vietnam has refused to accept some of the boat people residing in camps in Hong Kong. Among this group are a few hundred ethnic Chinese (South China Morning Post, 03/19/96). |
| May 1996 | Ho Chi Minh city is reported to be one of the world's fastest developing cities. Its 1995 growth rate was 15.3%, 6% above the national Vietnamese average. The city's population of 5 million includes an estimated 500,000 Chinese (South China Morning Post, 05/10/96). |
| Jun 1996 | Chinese Prime Minister Li Peng heads an official delegation that attends the Vietnamese communist party congress. This is the highest ranking delegation to participate in 36 years. The two countries reaffirm their commitment to socialism and the need for peaceful relations. Bilateral realtions between the two countries were normalized in 1991 (Agence France Presse, 06/28/96). |
| Aug 1996 | The government adopts Decree No. 501 which relates to the ethnic Chinese community. The decree reaffirms and expands on the guidelines outlined in the Communist Party's decree, which was adopted in August of 1995 (Amer, 1997, 24). |
| Jan 1997 | Around 5500 Vietnamese remain in camps in Hong Kong, down from 18,000 a year ago. China has asserted that the camps must be closed and the residents repatriated by the time it assumes control of Hong Kong in July. Some 1500 ethnic Chinese have reportedly been sent back to Vietnam. Approximately 500 remain in the camps; some of them hold Taiwanese papers while others first fled to China and resided there for many years before reaching Hond Kong (Economist, 01/11/97). |
| Mar 1997 | Two Vietnamese Chinese businessmen are arrested in Ho Chi Minh city for "abusing confidence to appropriate socialist properties" (Deutsche Presse-Agentur, 03/25/97). |
| Mar 30, 1997 | A member of the politburo urges officials in Ho Chi Minh city to mobilize the potential of its ethnic Chinese residents to help contribute toward the country's economic development. Truong Tan Sang states that so far the major initiative has been the establishment of joint ventures between state-run companies and those run by ethnic Chinese. Sang also urged city officials to encourage the Chinese to help them woo overseas investment, especially from their relatives and he called for intensified propaganda work within the Chinese community to prevent any attempts to separate them from others in Vietnamese society. More than 500,000 ethnic Chinese live in Ho Chi Minh city; by the end of last year, they were reported to be running 1380 companies, some 19% of the total number of companies located in the city (Japan Economic Newswire, 03/30/97). As loans are difficult to obtain, it is reported that influxes of capital from Taiwan and Hong Kong, often channeled through relatives or business contacts, have given the Chinese an advantage over local business people. The Hoa also have business and kinship links with Chinese communities in other Southeast Asian states (Amer, 1997, 26). |
| Jul 1998 | Some 29, mostly ethnic Chinese, defendants have been convicted in a case involving less than $24,000 in counterfeit currency. One defendant received a life sentence while another was sentenced to death (Deutsche Presse-Agentur, 07/29/1998). |
| Oct 1998 | Some 77 Vietnamese will soon stand trial in the country's largest corruption case which the government says led to state losses of more than $200 million. The scandal focuses on two private corporations run by ethnic Chinese (Deutsche Presse-Agentur, 10/23/98). |
| Oct 25, 1998 | Some 270 ethnic Chinese remain in a Hong Kong detention camp. The Chinese have been engaged in various court cases in the past few years to avoid being sent back to China. They originally fled from Vietnam in the late 1970s (South China Morning Post, 10/25/98). |
| Apr 30, 1999 | An official from the Ministry of Civil Affairs of China says that the more than 287,000 Indo-Chinese refugees who came mainly from Viet Nam are scattered in 194 refugee settlements. At the end of 1997, China had received more than 9,000 Vietnamese refugees who had moved illegally to Hong Kong from the Chinese mainland. China was hit by its greatest influx of refugees when Indo-Chinese flooded in from Viet Nam in late 1978 and 1979. (China Daily) |
| Jun 16, 1999 | The Ministry of the Interior of Taiwan has said that it will consider easing the restrictions on the entry and residence in the island of Taiwan citizens' ethnic-Chinese spouses from Indonesia, Vietnam and Myanmar. (Central News Agency) |
