PEOPLE

administration and co-operativca, must be ready to evacuate to other
arcas d the country. P o main areas were mentioned - the town
of Vinh, several hundred kilomms south of Hanoi, and the south
central highlands.) One pemn asked how long would they bt away,
The answer was: until China abandoned its intentions of invading
Viemam. Another pcrson asked how they would work in the new
awas, The answer was: wherever possible, people would continue
in their present employment, hut 'While you art waiting to obtain
appropriate work the local authorities will deploy you in productive
labour', At this meeting there was no mention of a 'second way' -
going abroad.
Vimally all the northern Hoa interviewed in Hong Kong
described relations between the two ethnic groups prior to 1978 n
'normal', 'good', or 'warm'. Nwly everyone, however, had some rcservations.
A number of manual workers complained of petty discrimination.
They said their Viemame~ colleagues did not trust
them, or said 'rude things' about them Mind their backs. Hoa of
various social backgrounds compiained that the ethnic Chinese w m
a1 ways blamed for any rise in prices.
A Chinese couple - he a 3byear-old printer, she a 25-year-old
confectiontry worker - who left nonhern Vietnam on 15 April 1979,
said that in Hanoi the average Viemamese wan still friendly towards
Chinese, But because of the government's policy it was common for
Victnamesc to tell their Hca friends bey could no longer associate,
The wife had noticed that since the Sino-Vietnamese war, some
Viemamese kept watch on Chinese and reported their movements
to public security officials who checked their Komw regularly. The
local radio station broadcast daily the names of ethnic Chincst who
had been arrested for 'spying'.
How did the Chinese in Victnam see themselves? How did they
see Vietnam and China? Where did heir loyalties lie? A umplc of
Hoa birth cenificatcs, smuggled out by refugees from the Hanoi-
Haiphong area and cxamined in Hong Kong, showed that while Hoa
intemnied with ethnic Vietnamese, few had adopted Vietnamc~
citizenship. With striking consistency the entry 'Hoa' was followed
by 'citizenship - Chinese'. This, given the efforts of the Vietnamese
authorities to assimilate the Ha, suggests a persistent identity with
the 'motherland' China. One refugee commented tartly: 'They tried
Exodus
to assimilate us - but we opposed them', The widespread citizenship
bond with China also helps explain why so few Hoa went into the
Vietnamese army (only volunteers joined, otherwise it would have
meant conscripting foreign nationals of a powerful neighbout), and
why Hoa could go to China every few years without much difficulty
- a privilege not available to most Vietnamese.
Some Hoa livcd in largely Vietnamese arcas, had married Viet-
namese, worked with Vietnamese and knew little or no Chinese
language, However, when asked about their feelings when war
between China and Vietnam erupted, many were sympathetic to
China. Said one: 'Some of he Vietnamese] leaders. . . arc following
the Soviet Union, even though China gavc them so much aid during
the war. When China struck Vietnam, I felt some sympathy for
China! Another said he thought the war was a result of Vietnam's
'mistaken policies'. A third said he was confused - his original sympathy
for the Vietminh in the 19509 has been closely tied to pride
at thc success of the revolution in China and Peking's support for
the struggle in Vietnam. Another man said that 'of course China had
to invade - Vieam was opposing it', The bitterat words came from
a young man from Quang Ninh province: 'I was born there, grew
up there, but I'm not Vimamcse. When China artacked Vietnam,
I was glad. If they hadn't chased me out I would have gone anyway!
For each person who was willing to discuse politics, however, there
war one who was not, who felt Viemam was his or her home and
had wanted to stay there,
'r'liiv is what interested governments said about the boat refugees
from southern Vietnam.
Malaysia'5 home affairs minister, 'Tan Sri Ghazali Shafic, in an
address puhlished on 29 November 1978:
I
1
'These people an not in fear of immediate reprisal for collaborating with the
US or {former Preaidenr] Thieu. They have tasted lift in the new rCgimc
and.. . found it unpalatable for nne wason or anothrr,
1
Vietnam's secretary of state for foreign affairs, Ngt~ym Co Thach,
in an interview published in the New York Tinter of 7 August 1919:
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