The Lost of Vietnamese land and the Hoang Sa & Truong Sa during the Ho Chi Minh era

1000 years under Chinese’s domination

100 years under French domination

20 years of bloody civil war

The gift of mother Vietnam to her children

A nation of sadness and sorrow

The Vietnamese is a proud race of people with a history that is as rich and evocative as any other nations in the world. Recent archaeological finds suggest that people have inhabited today Northern Vietnam at least 500,000 years ago. The early Vietnamese was engaged in primitive farming as early as 7000 B.C. Around 3 B.C, the Bronze Age Dong Son culture emerged giving us the beautiful bronze drums and sophisticated bronze weapons. The ancient Viet culture was matriarchal and ancients Vietnamese laws and customs gave women much more rights than other societies in the region.

Ma Yuan Statues

The misfortune of the Vietnamese is that they live near a powerful neighbor who ancient leaders often view themselves being the “children of heaven”, as such they are more “civilize” and “cultured” than their neighbor and has the manifest destiny to rule over their tiny neighbors. The Chinese ruled Vietnam from 207 B.C to 939 A.D The Vietnamese gain their brief independent from China, when the Trưng sisters and their tiny army routed the Chinese in 40 B.C, the Trưng sisters’ government lasted for three years before the Chinese led by the great Chinese general Ma Yuan defeated the Vietnamese. In 939 B.C, the Vietnamese gain true independent from China when the Vietnamese military genius Ngô Quyền defeated the Southern Han forces at the battle of Bạch Đằng River¹ .

Throughout the 1000 years of Chinese’s domination, the Chinese tries to destroy any evidence that the Vietnamese existed as people long before Chinese’s domination. Vietnamese was force to assimilate Chinese’s culture, speak Chinese’s language and adopt Chinese’s customs. However, despite pressure from their Chinese masters, the Vietnamese did retain their own language, culture and heritage even as they were being enslaved. The Chinese desire to subjugate the Vietnamese and reclaim what they view as their properties did not stop after the Vietnamese regained their independent, Chinese dynasty from the Sung, Yuan, Ming and Qing have invaded Vietnam using different pretext but none could subjugate the Vietnamese.

The Lost of Vietnamese territories to China during Ho Chi Minh era

According to the official documents published by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 1979, the People RepublicChina has annexed large area of Vietnamese land since 1956. The white paper “Vấn Đề Biên Giới Giữa Việt Nam Và Trung Quốc” published by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Secretary of Foreign Affairs accused China of taken advantage of the isolation of the area near the China – Vietnam’s border to move large number of Chinese to these areas and blatantly remake Chinese’s map to include these areas as part of Chinese’s territories. of

Annexation through Illegal immigration

Documents from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam revealed that in 1956, the People Republic of China moved large number of Chinese into the Trình Tường area of Quảng Ninh province in North Vietnam and incorporate this area into Kwang Xi province. An entire area of 6 kms deep inside Vietnamese territories was lost to China2. The Trình Tường area was not the only incident, there were 40 separate incidents in 1956 where the People Republic of China use force to annexed land that have belong to the Vietnamese for generations such as the annexation of Thanh Loa and Cao Lộc villages in Lạng Sơn province, Khăm Khau in Cao Bằng, Tà Lùng, Làn Phù Phìn, Minh Tân in Hà Tuyên province, 300 hectares(300 hectares are equivalent to 741.3 acres) of land in the area around the village of Nặm Chay in Hoàng Liên Sơn was also annexed by Chinese illegal immigrants.³

Annexation through Joint Business and military ventures

In 1955, the People Republic of China sent a large number of engineers and members of the People Liberation Army of China to help the North Vietnamese built the Sino-Vietnamese railroad. However,the Chinese did not leave North Vietnam after the completion of the railroad, instead, the area along the tracks of the Sino-Vietnamese railroad was annexed as part of the new territories of the People Republic of China. Over 300 m2 of Vietnamese territories in North Vietnam was incorporated into the PRC. In 1974, the North Vietnamese politely asked the Chinese to return the land to Vietnam but the request was refused⁴.

There were many other incidents involving blatant Chinese’s aggression and expansionism against the North Vietnamese throughout the Ho Chi Minh era. The People Republic of China had slowly taken part of Vietnamese land around the Bản Giốc Waterfall. On February 20, 1970, the People Republic of China sent over 2000 heavily armed PLA soldiers and workers to block off the area around the Đàm Thuỷ Hamlet of Cao Bằng province, this was the site of the famous Vietnamese landmark Bản Giốc Waterfall.The People Republic of China has always recognized this famous area as part of Vietnamese territory but in 1970, China decided unilaterally that the area was to be part of the People Republic of China’s territories.

Aside from the Bản Giốc waterfall, other area in the Cao Bằng province was also taken by force by the Chinese’s People Liberation Army such as the town of Ái Điểm, Bình Mãng and a large area of land near the border marker #43 and border marker #114 was annexed by the PRC by force. Almost every joint venture between the People Republic of China and the North Vietnamese during the Ho Chi Minh’s era resulted in the Chinese annexing Vietnamese territories near the site of the joint venture⁵.

Annexation through the manipulations of border markers

The North Vietnamese claimed that since the 1950’s the PRC has moved many of the border markers deep inside Vietnamese territory, thereby gaining more land through the manipulation of border markers. The manipulation often went unnoticed in sparsely populated area. However, there were incidents of manipulation so blatant and brazen that it attracted the attention of the North Vietnamese officials. One of the most blatant examples of Chinese’s border marker manipulation occurred right under the watchful eyes of the North Vietnamese at the Chi Ma area of Lạng Sơn province.

There was also other blatant manipulation of border mark such as the manipulation at the border marker 1356 at Cao Bằng province, Kùm Mu-Kim, Ngân-Mẫu Sơn involving the border marker # 41, #42 and #43 at Lạng Sơn province in which an area 9 km square was lost to the aggression of the PRC. Over 1000 hectares of land was lost at the Nà Pảng-Kéo Trình area. At Cao Bằng province, the PRC manipulation of the border markers resulted in the lost of an estimated 200 hectare of Vietnamese territories to China⁶.

Annexation through the use of force

From 1953 to 1967, the People Republic of China using the People Liberation Army annexed a large number of lands in North Vietnam. In 1953 at the Trà Mần-Suối Lũng near the border marker #136 to #137, the PLA move a large number of Chinese illegal aliens into Vietnamese land in North Vietnam. The illegal aliens established three hamlets in North Vietnam, the Chinese named their new hamlet Si Lung. The illegal aliens’ hamlets later expand to villages and in 1967, large number of commerce, schools and other enterprise sprang forth from these towns.

Similar incidents also occurred at the area near border marker #2 and #3 at Nậm Chảy, Mường Khương in the Hoàng Liên Sơn area. From 1967 to 1968, large number of Chinese of the Mèo extraction from Yun Nan province pours into North Vietnam and illegally occupied a large area of land in North Vietnam. The North Vietnamese regime under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh politely asked the People Republic of China to remove the Chinese squatters but China refused.

Ho’s regime did nothing but watch the squatters pour in from China. The squatters’ area expanded into large villages. The squatters called their village the “Sìn Sài Thàng”. Sensing the impotent of the Ho Chi Minh regime and the Vietnamese Communist Party, the brazen Chinese squatters expanded their area and in 1976, the People Republic of China moved several units of the PLA into the squatters’ area to “protect Chinese citizens and Chinese land” from the North Vietnamese⁷.

The Socialist Republic of Vietnam "white paper" on the lost of Vietnamese territories to China

While Ho Chi Minh claims to be a “patriot”, Ho and the Vietnamese Communist Party did nothing to stop the People Republic of China from seizing Vietnamese land. In 1958, Ho Chi Minh actually encourages the PRC’s expansionist behaviors by ordering North Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Van Dong to send a letter to the PRC’s Prime Minister Zhou Enlai recognizing the PRC sovereignty over the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagos. Lưu Văn Lợi, the famous North Vietnamese foreign diplomat later claimed, “Prime Minister Phạm Văn Đồng had no intention of tackling a juridical question, the question of territory or sovereignty, nor spoke of the Hoàng Sa and the Truờng Sa. He was thinking only of one thing: the bellicosity of US imperialism and the activities of the 7th fleet in the Taiwan straight which were threatening China. These factors led him to make as soon as possible a gesture of support for the fixation of the 12-mile width of the territorial waters so as to help create an obstacle to the US schemes⁸.”

The explanation by Lưu Văn Lợi is ridiculous if taken in context of the large number of incidents of Chinese's aggression. Why would Ho “lend” the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagos to the People Republic of China for “safekeeping” when there are countless examples of the PRC using force or wiles to annex Vietnamese land? It is like letting the fox guard the chicken coop. Is Ho Chi Minh stupid or he did not care how much Vietnamese territories he has to give away as long he can achieve his own personal goals ? Vietnamese land belongs to all Vietnamese, what right does Ho and his regime has in giving away Vietnamese territories for their own benefit?

Vietnam has lost land to China before, but never in the 5,000 years history of Vietnam had any Vietnamese government given up so much land and territorial water without a whimper as happen under Ho and the Vietnamese Communist Party. Ho was willing to remain silence to Chinese’s aggression in order to continue receiving Chinese’s support for Ho’s war against the South Vietnamese. In 1965, when the Americans sent troops to help the South Vietnamese, the People Republic of China also sent over 400,000 Chinese troops, technicians and advisors to Vietnam at the request of Ho’s government. Chinese troops occupied large are of North Vietnam from the area near the border all the way to Ha Noi. It is unknown how much land was lost while the PLA was stantioned in North Vietnam⁹.

1) Phạm Văn Sơn, Việt Sử Toàn Thư: Từ Thượng Cổ Đến Hiện Tại (Sai Gon: Tai Thư Lam An Thư Quan So, 1960), pp. 389-392,406-470. Phạm Văn Sơn is one of three prominent Vietnamese historian of the 20^th century (the other two being Trần Trọng Kim and Đào Duy Anh). After 1975, Phạm Văn Sơn was sent to the Corrective Labor Re-Education camp where he was routinely abused. Imprisoned in a leper section, Pham contracted the leprosy and died a horrible death at K2 Tân Lập Re-education Camp. The Socialist Republic of Viet Nam later republished Phams’ works posthumously.

2) Bộ Ngoại giao nước Cộng hoà xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam. Vấn Đề Biên Giới Giữa Việt Nam Và Trung Quốc, (Hà Nội: Nhà xuất bản Sự Thật, March 1979), pp.25.

3) Ibid, pp.30.

4) Ibid, pp.32-33.

5) Ibid, pp. 33-61.

6) Ibid, pp. 43-55.

7) Ibid, pp. 58-68.

8) Lưu Văn Lợi, The Sino-Vietnamese Difference on the Hoàng Sa and Trường Sa Archipelagoes (Hà Nội: Thé̂ giới Publisher, 1996).Đặc Khảo Hoàng Sa và Trường Sa, Tap San Su Dia. Saigon 1974. PRC's declaration over the islands in 1958 Xinhua archives. Far East Economic Review March 16, 1979, pp. 11. Beijing Review August, 25 1979, pp.25.

9) Hoàng Văn Hoan, Giọt nước trong biển cả (Nhà xuất bản Tin Việt Nam , 1986), pp.344-345. Nguyễn Thư Hiền, Đêm Giữa Ban Ngày (Santa Ana: Nhà Xuất Bản Văn Nghệ, 1997), pp.178, 229.

The number of 400,000 Chinese troops and advisors came from Nguyễn Thư Hiền in his book “Đêm Giữa Ban Ngày “, Hoàng Văn Hoan gave the number of 300,000 Chinese troops but probably did not include the number of Chinese advisors and technicians in his figure. Both figures are very similar to the figure cited by Professor Qiang Zhai in his book “China and the Vietnam Wars 1950-1975.