4.
(c)
(a)
(e)
ethnic Chinese who left Northern Vietnam before the 21 July moratorium and stopped along the Chinese coast particularly at Bei Hai (on the Chinese coast, close to Hainan island) before making their way to Hong Kong (approximately 18%);
ethnic Chinese who had crossed into China by land or boat since mid-1978 and had been resettled on Overseas or State farms. They had decided that life in China was little better than the life they had left in Vietnam and have come to Hong Kong by boats bought in China, posing as refugees sailing direct from Vietnam (approximately 47%); and
ethnic Chinese who left Northern Vietnam before the moratorium by boat but were either shipwrecked on the Chinese coast or had their boats badly damaged. They pooled resources amongst other like groups and accepted additional ethnic Chinese who had been resettled in China in exchange for food and money to buy a new boat or repair their own. In at least one instance, illegal immigrants also joined a boat (approxi- mately 12%).
Refugees from Southern Vietnam state that living conditions there are deteriorating day-by-day with food shortages, transport difficulties, and little fishing done due to a lack of boats. The Vietnamese Government stopped registering ethnic Chinese in the south for departure by boat in mid-June. Public Security officials have strictly enforced the moratorium and offer rewards for information concerning ethnic Chinese trying to escape. Informants are given thirty per cent of the value of the boat and its goods on board, both of which are confiscated. Ethnic Vietnamese are more able to bribe minor officials and escape clandestinely.
5.
A further new factor (probably reflected in the unexpectedly high proportion of refugees arriving in Singapore) is that since mid-July, a number of merchant, 'mercy' vessels or ships of the US Seventh Fleet have rescued 'shipwrecked' refugees off the coast of Southern Vietnam. These refugees have stated that they left Vietnam with little food, water or fuel, in the direct hope they would be rescued by the US Seventh Fleet. Knowledge of the whereabouts of the Fleet was obtained from overseas radio broadcasts or market place gossip.
6.
No refugees have left Northern Vietnam by boat directly for Hong Kong since the moratorium, but Chinese officials allege that Vietnam has continued to truck the remainder of her ethnic Chinese population in the north to the land border and push these across in their hundreds every day. China claims to have taken in excess of 250,000 ethnic Chinese plus a number of ethnic Vietnamese and border nationalities. The majority of these have been resettled on Overseas or State farms in different provinces, some farms already barely self-sufficient, and many soon become
/dissatisfied...
T