CITY OF GARDEN GROVE, CALIFORNIA
11222 ACACIA PARKWAY, P.O. BOX 3070, GARDEN GROVE, CALIFORNIA 92842
March 11, 2002
Ambassador Nguyen Tam Chien
Embassy of Vietnam Via facsimile & U.S. mail (202) 861-0917
1233 20th Street NW, Suite 400
Washington, D.C. 20036
Dear Ambassador Chien:
I write on behalf of 38,000 Americans of Vietnamese descent and Vietnamese
residents living in the City of Garden Grove, California, concerning the recent
placement of the national border marker along the Sino-Vietnamese border. This
important issue is raised with your government not as a means to interfere with
your government’s current conduct in foreign policy, but much more importantly,
as a vehement objection from the Vietnamese people around the world and inside
Vietnam who have a birthright claim to their
national and ethnic identity.
As you are aware, Vietnam and China have signed several bilateral treaties on or
about December 30, 1999, and December 25, 2000, demarcating new border
boundaries and maritime territories, respectively. Specifically, the content of
the land treaty between your two governments were not publicly divulged and was
hastily rubber-stamped by your national assembly, without any substantive debate
as to the merits of the provisions contained therein.
According to international newswire reports and reliable
sources from inside Vietnam, the land treaty that your government entered into
contained unilateral concessions of prized Vietnamese natural landmarks,
including but not limited to the Ban Gioc Waterfalls (Thac Ban Gioc), the Nam
Quan Gateway (Ai Nam Quan), and the Phi Khanh Rivulet (Suoi Phi Khanh). In all,
your government had ceded to the Chinese authorities over 1,000 square
kilometers of historically-recognized property that belong to Vietnam.
Similar to the land treaty, the territorial maritime agreement is shrouded in
secrecy, which has yet to be ratified by your legislative body. But if the
unconscionable terms of the land treaty are an indication, then I
can only fear that your government had also negotiated away, if not outright
gave away, thousands of square kilometers worth of valuable Vietnamese
territorial rights on the high seas. What concessions have your government
received from the Chinese in return for the handing over of Vietnam’s sacred
land and ocean rights? And if these agreements were such great deals for
Vietnam, as vaguely touted by leaders of your government, then why are you so
reluctant to publish their contents to corroborate your own
contention?
As a matter of equity, your government should immediately divulge the contents
and provisions of your agreements with the Chinese authorities. Your reluctance
to publicize these documents, which have a direct effect on the future of the
nation, can only exacerbate the ill-will and mistrust the Vietnamese people
possess towards your government. Therefore, as a duly elected official of
Vietnamese descent, whose constituency includes the largest population of
Vietnamese residents outside of Vietnam, I call on your government to respect
the will of the Vietnamese people, in and outside of Vietnam, and to disclose
the details of your treaties with China. I also request that your government
suspend the ratification of the maritime treaty pending the full disclosure and
national debate of this document by the Vietnamese people.
Hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese overseas and those inside Vietnam have
strongly condemned your government’s action as no less than a “sell-out” of
Vietnamese sovereignty and national identity. All people of Vietnamese descent
possess a moral, cultural and historical right to denounce your government’s
conduct in this matter, which have adversely affected the rights of the
Vietnamese people for generations to come. Surely, you are aware that the
worldwide condemnation against your government is exhibited
through numerous popular protests, petition letters, collective resolutions and
acts of denunciation. In light of the secrecy and the one-sided nature of your
agreements with the Chinese authorities, your government’s decision cannot be
justified as part of a nation’s foreign policy, immune to outside criticism. In
short, your government had squandered sacred Vietnamese property, of which your
leaders serve as unelected and unaccountable trustees.
In the aftermath of the execution of these unequal treaties, the leadership of
your government and the Vietnamese Communist Party will have to answer to
history, to the Vietnamese people, and to every generation thereafter as to your
decision to cede territorial and water rights to the Chinese without
consulting or receiving input from the Vietnamese people.
Sincerely,
Van Thai Tran, Esq.
Mayor Pro Tempore
VT/np
Cc: Secretary-General Kofi Annan, United Nations
President George W. Bush
House Speaker Dennis Hastert
Senate President Pro Tempore Robert Byrd
Secretary of State Colin Powell