What’s happening on the China-Vietnam border?
What’s happening on the China-Vietnam border?
WRITTEN BY BILL HAYTON
10 January 2022
For weeks now, thousands of Vietnamese truck drivers have been stuck at border crossings with China. In more remote stretches of the frontier, there have been small clashes between Chinese security forces and Vietnamese villagers and workers. The apparent cause of both problems is China’s COVID-19 containment measures but, as with so many aspects of Vietnam-China relations, no one outside the two governments can be sure. On 25 December last year, according to the Vietnamese media, almost six thousand trucks were backed up at checkpoints in the provinces of Quang Ninh and Lang Son. The situation is so bad that officials have suggested that some farmers should delay harvesting their crops because millions of dollars’ worth of food is already rotting at the border.
Trade and dependency
Vietnam has publicly blamed China’s zealous pandemic-prevention procedures. In a statement on 31 December, Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade described the measures as “over necessary”, saying “this disruption has caused [a] negative impact on bilateral trade and great losses to businesses and people on both sides”. There have been a very small number of reported cases of COVID-19 on the Chinese side of the border but some of the disease control measures, such as blocking the import of dragonfruit but not other types of fruit, seem bizarre. Officials from Lang Son Province say they have held more than 50 rounds of talks with their counterparts from Guangxi Province in China but without success. The discussions have been escalated to the level of Deputy Foreign Minister but there is no sign of a breakthrough.
This year, with Cambodia in the chair of the Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN), China is hoping to win concessions on the content of the Code of Conduct. So far, Vietnam is holding firm.
There has been more trouble elsewhere along the two countries’ 1300km-long border. An unidentified video posted on Twitter on 3 January showed Chinese security forces in riot gear picking up stones and throwing them at Vietnamese construction workers apparently rebuilding the banks of a river that marks the boundary between the two countries. The video shows a newly built fence, at least three metres high and reinforced with many rolls of razor wire running along the Chinese side of the river. This is part of a giant barrier that China has been installing for the past two years. Other videos on YouTube and elsewhere show how dozens, perhaps hundreds of kilometres of this fence have been built so far.
Geopolitics by other means
China has publicly described the fence as another pandemic-prevention measure. However, the scale of the construction suggests it has been built to outlast the pandemic and to divide the two countries far into the future. It appears that the Chinese authorities are using the pandemic to justify a previously planned effort to seal the border. While this may reduce smuggling and human trafficking, it will also divide communities that have lived in the mountains for far longer than the border has existed. The fence-building has already provoked protests from some villagers whose livelihoods and family arrangements depend upon easy transit of the boundary.
Video evidence suggests that the Chinese authorities have built the fence a few metres on their side of the precise line of the border. This may well have been the trigger for the confrontation with the Vietnamese construction workers on the riverbank. It is likely that the exact line of the border runs down the centre of the river but with the new fence built on the Chinese bank, it is also possible that the Vietnamese side may have taken the opportunity to grab a few metres of territory, provoking the Chinese retaliation. Neither side has spoken publicly about what is going on.
In the absence of other evidence, it seems likely that these border tensions have been triggered by China’s COVID-19 containment measures. However, there is always the possibility that China is using some of these measures as cover to impose economic pressure on Vietnam. The two governments have differences over the South China Sea and particularly over a planned Code of Conduct for the rival claimants. This year, with Cambodia in the chair of the Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN), China is hoping to win concessions on the content of the Code of Conduct. So far, Vietnam is holding firm.
DISCLAIMER: All views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent that of the 9DASHLINE.com platform.
Author biography
Bill Hayton is an Associate Fellow with the Asia-Pacific Programme at Chatham House. He is the author of ‘Vietnam: rising dragon’ (2020) and ‘A brief history of Vietnam’ (forthcoming). Image credit: Flickr/Maurice Koop.