CONFIDENTIAL
7760
It always has
вест
:
213/1
DF Murray Esq, CMG
AUSS
FCO
Dear Donald,
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES
must be
SEAD
This is
Hkk 243
RECEIVED !!! ❤TS:
BRITISH EMBASSY,
31 MAY 1079 HANOI,
DESK OFFICK
INDEX
Лю
be included in bricking for
in bricking for Univister
PA
ACT
May 1979
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It's conte
....
RE/PUS Mir. corteggi Mr. Many HKOD FED
Дв
Sir A Pousons
Ar Fergusson
29
Min Bullard.
h
Leahy
EESD
UND. MVD
1. Having recently returned from a visit to Ho Chi Minh City where I spoke to many people about the exodus of ethnic Chinese refugees, I think I should let you have some thoughts on the subject, which are very different from some things which the Vietnamese delegation are reported as having said at this week's Jakarta conference.
2.
A major effect of the recent Sino/Vietnamese fighting has been to increase greatly the refugee exodus. The atmosphere in Vietnam is now strongly anti-China and, although the authorities would deny it, anti- Chinese. The propagandh machine reminds everyone constantly of the age- old struggle against China; of past victories, of how China after 1954 plotted to keep Vietnam divided, and of how China is now hand in glove with the United States and determined to annex Vietnam etc. etc. It is not therefore surprising that the ethnic Chinese community in this country feel, even more intensely than last year, a sense of persecution and are determined to leave the country if they possibly can. The Vietnamese authorities for their part have spoken openly of the ethnic Chinese community as a potential fifth column; and I believe the hostilities with China have reinforced powerfully their determination to get rid of the vast majority of the ethnic Chinese community.
4
3. We have already reported to the Department that large numbers of ethnic Chinese in Hanoi and Haiphong were ordered last month to leave the country or go to New Economic Zones. China is reported on the wireless as saying that some 20,000 have left the country as a result of this. I have also heard that ethnic Chinese in important positions in the army and government have been removed to new jobs in the South so as to keep them well away from any future fighting in the North. Of the 250,000 ethnic Chinese who lived in the North at the start of 1978, probably less than 50,000 remain.
Despite
4. In the South the dimensions of the problem are quite different. the fact that some 300,000 ethnic Chinese have left since the end of the war in 1975, probably about one million remain. Most of them, as you know, live in the Cho Lon area of Ho Chi Minh City. Very approximate figures. compiled by the UNHCR Representative here from various Chinese sources, indicate that there has been an enormous increase in departures of boat people since the Sino/Vietnamese fighting. I have it on very good authority bebeve it is! (you can probably guess the source) that US $21.2 million were remitted to the
Bank of Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City in April from ethnic Chinese living abroad.
Дви
CONFIDENTIAL
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