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Mr Quantich Mi
INDOCHINESE REFUGEES
Further to my mi
to my minute below, I had a conversation at the QBP yesterday with Mr Gao Shikun, Head of Consular Department, MFA. Mr Gao told me that there were now 270,000 refugees in China, which is 40,000 higher than the
many
latest known figure. Of these, as 10,000 were in
no way connected with China, being completely Vietnamese or of some other minority nationality. The current rate of entry into China was around 12,000 per month more than half arriving by sea. The Chinese estimate that there were 300,000 ethnic Chinese in North Vietnam at the end of the war with the United States, most of whom have already left to either China or Hong Kong. In South Vietnam the re were 1,500,000, of which there are perhaps 1,000,000 left. The Vietnamese are determined to expel these
2. Mr Gao said that China would support an international conference as Mrs Thatcher had proposed. He agreed that the problems connected with disposal of refugees to countries of final destination, relieving the burden on the neighbouring countries, should be discussed, as well as the need to put pressure on Vietnam to alter her policies. China for her part was continuing to accept refugees, although they did not expect the flow to continue much longer directly into China, since the North was now almost cleared. He was not in a position to comment on UNHCR's proposals for possible Chinese assistance with transit facilities for principally South Vietnamese refugees from other countries in the region, other than saying China was prepared in principle to play some role, but that steps taken should not encourage the Vietnamese to push more people out.
21 June 1979
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