Major
General Lê Văn Cương, in a talk with the HCMC Legal Daily in 2012, said China
is going without allies as a result of its vicious expansionism and readiness
to do anything to attain its goals.
Physical force is
China’s major tool in territorial disputes with
The
Vietnamese National Assembly in June 2012 passed the Law of the Sea. Just ask China
if there is any littoral state on earth is going without law of the sea. While the
Chinese have not issued a law of the sea, they make do by seven other acts to
dominate and to maintain their territory at sea, including Maritime Law, Basic
Line Law, Ocean Law, etc. So Vietnam adopts the Law of the Sea is “exactly like
when you own a house with a garden, and you have to fence the garden”,
explained General Le Van Cuong.
-Reporter: In the
recent tension [in the South China Sea], Chinese media has been reporting a lot
of misleading information on Vietnam. It seems China is trying to use its
state-controlled media machine to incite the people, isn’t it?
- Major
General Le Van Cuong: Some Chinese journalists and scholars write on the Global
Times, a newspaper under the People’s Daily, calling for a war against Vietnam,
claiming it as the only way to solve the South China Sea issue, blaming Vietnam
to be the only invader and the most aggressive country in the world. They
portray Vietnam as a criminal and a deceiver who cheats their army and the
whole world.
But
I believe that the vast majority of China’s three million troops do not want to
provoke hostilities. They want fellowship instead. The 1.3 billion people of
China are benevolent and kindhearted, too. They want fellowship rather than a
war from which they gain nothing. They are just playing cards which are sacrificed
and deceived. Turning to more than 20 members of the Politic Bureau, it’s not
that all of them want to provoke a war. The ones who want a war account for
just a tiny portion.
Things
go the same with the 1979 war against Vietnam. The Chinese press has published
thousands of articles misleading audiences, cramming into their mind the notion
that it was a glorious victory of China’s People Liberation Army over
Vietnamese invaders. Thus far the people aware of the true nature of the war
account for only 1%.
Chinese
President Hu Jintao on August 17th told African leaders in Bejing
that China “is determined in opposing rich countries that dominate poor ones,
big countries that bully small ones.” What is said is rhetorical, but what is
done is on the contrary.
- There have been
opinions that Chinese media provides misleading information that “deteriorate
people.”
- It
has been a Chinese tradition to deceive since the Eastern Zhou dynasty. People
are molded into sheep that simply obey with the superior. Chinese media has so
far been the planet’s biggest system of lying that operates just at the wills
of the political elite. In this aspect, China outdoes the United States.
In
1979, China invaded Vietnam in the daytime, not at night. But so far in every
anniversary, the Chinese press releases up to 700 or 800 articles in average
that run similar titles, “Glorious victory of the PLA over Vietnamese
invaders,” “The victorious strategic counter attack,” etc.
A protest rally against China in the Philippines.
... and Vietnam
Ready to use cruelty
- People often talk
about Chinese expansionism. How popular do you think expansionism is in the
world today?
- Scientifically,
every big nation to no small extent has some element of expansionism. Not just
China, but also are the United States, Russia, Germany, Japan, and India. This
is a universal characteristic [of big nations] just as wealthy people tend to
look down on indigent ones. It is true to an individual, a community, and a nation
also.
Therefore
peaceful evolution is not unique to the United States. Although peaceful
evolution of modern time traces its root to the United States, China is truly
the father and the world’s master of manipulating a nation to make sure its
government acts at their will. 2600 years ago, in the Spring and Autumn period,
Guan Zhong of the Qi state was the inventor of peaceful evolution as he used manoeuvres of sowing division, employing economic coercion, exaggerating conflicts, and hawking
slanderous news so that the king would punish the loyal and leave only the
fawns and the inefficient. The nation would thereby decline and he would
dominate the five neighboring states within just several years. The United
States is just an imitation of China in this aspect.
- So how different is
Chinese expansionism so that China is resented the world over as you’ve
mentioned?
- Chinese
expansionism is characterized by two distinguished traits. First, it is more
vigorous and vicious than other countries.
Second,
China is ready to use whatever cunning trick regardless of its seriousness. The
United States, Japan and EU never send their people to Vietnam to lead on local
farmers in amalgamating mud and tea before taking the mixture back to China for
filming and televising to the entire world. Neither do they purchase from
Vietnam buffalo hooks, cinnamon roots, and leeches; nor sell low-quality, even
toxic products into Vietnam. That’s why the world keeps vigilant eyes on China.
China is a super power without alliances.
When does China use
force?
- Looking back on armed
wars launched by China since 1949, how would you view the factors that got
Chinese leaders use force as a solution to international relation issues?
- There
has been a confluence of two streams, expansionism and short-term interests.
The 1969 war against the Soviet Union was a sacrifice of China to prove to the
United States that China was not an ally of the Soviet Union. In February 1979,
by sacrificing Vietnam, once again Beijing proved to Washington that it was not
in any alliance with Hanoi. Before attacking Vietnam, Deng Xiaoping even
visited Washington, wearing a cowboy hat, telling US President Carter, “We are Eastern
NATO.” Vietnam was the victim in China’s exchange with the United States.
Between
1979 and 1991, China colluded with the United States and international hostile
forces to choke Vietnam, blocking and sanctioning the country. This pulled
Vietnam thirty years backward. That was a black age in Vietnam’s history, when
all the ways out to the world were blocked by China and the United States.
Expansion
is China’s long-term strategy, but whenever force is needed to deal with
short-term interests relevant to that strategy, China will be ready to use
force.
Photo courtesy: Paracel Data Center (HSO)
- The fact that big
countries, with their mindset of expansionism, shake hand with each other at
the expense of small countries, has been seen many times in history. What about
the relations between Vietnam, China and other big nations?
- I
believe that Vietnam was sold down the river a total of five times.
The
first sellout of Vietnam was made in 1954 when China made a bargain with the
United States and France. The boundary between the two regions of Vietnam
should have been the 13th or 15th parallel rather than 17th.
However, to win the heart of the United States and the West, China made
concessions by designating the 17th parallel. It was France who
later told us about this.
The
second time was in 1972 when Vietnam was about to win the anti-US war. Henry
Kissinger had previously initialed an agreement with Le Duc Tho and the two had
reported to their superior in preparation for the conclusion of the Paris Peace
Accord. But Mao Zedong invited US President Nixon to China to sign the Shanghai
Joint Communique of February 27th 1972.
On
March 1st 1972, Kissinger held a press conference in Tokyo, in which
he gave a famous statement, “now we only look to Moscow to crush Hanoi.”
Following the signing of the Shanghai Joint Communique, Nixon succeeded in
doing shocking things that his previous presidents had failed to do, including
blocking the Hai Phong port, the only sea lane connecting Vietnam to the world,
commanding airstrikes very close to China-Vietnam boundary, then launching the
twelve-day campaign of “Dien Bien Phu in the air”. Loss of human lives and
property caused by US air raids in the north of Vietnam since March 1st
1972 until the conclusion of the Paris Peace Accord equal the total damages in
the six previous years. In the south, blood was shed. So the Shanghai Joint
Communique was actually written in the blood of the Vietnamese people.
In
its third time betrayal, China took over Paracel Islands in 1974. It would
never had launched any attack but for the approval from the United States.
For
the fourth time, China became the perpetrator behind the massacre of over two
million Cambodians. China supported the Khmer Rouge with almost everything from
food to arms, from ammunition to medicines. In the southwestern border war of
1976-1978, China used the Khmer Rouge to fight Vietnam. Subsequently when we
liberated Cambodia, China hyped up to the world that Vietnam was plotting the
establishment of “the Indo-China Federation.” It is ironical that the
perpetrator of a massacre could calumniate those who saved the Cambodian people
from a holocaust.
The
fifth time was the border war of 1979. So there were five times China made a
sellout of Vietnam.
*
* *
“Historically,
in all of its disputes with other nations, China has never been reasonable. In
the 1962 war with India, it appropriated tens of thousands of land miles
without any reason.
Similar
are China’ conflicts with Japan and Philippines, in which it has no reason at
all. I have made a calculation to find out there are up to 15 books and 20
ancient maps saying the southernmost border of China reached Hainan island
only.”
(M.
General Lê Văn Cương)
