From: zts_duong@hg.uleth.ca
Subject: [POL] Party plenum dominated by concerns over China
Reply-To: zts_duong@hg.uleth.ca
Organization: University of Lethbridge
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 22:23:54 GMT

Party Plenum Dominated by Concerns over China
(from F.E.E.R.)

	Vietnam's ruling central committee, alarmed by a recent Chinese
decision to grant a US company the right to explore for oil in an area of the
South China Sea that Hanoi says lies within Vietnam's continental shelf, has
reopened a debate on whether China remains a long-term threat to the country
security.

	Meeting in its third plenum from 18-29 June, the central committee also
discussed "the renewal and readjustment of the party," according to a
communique released at the end of the session.  Vietnamese  and foreign
observers say this refer to the recognition among some leaders that the party
needs to be radically overhauled to meet a series of crises, including
declining discipline among many officials and difficulties in recruiting new
members.

	But it was the dispute over China's unilateral decision to grant
Colorado-based Crestone Energy Corp. the right to look for oil within Hanoi's
declare 320-km continental shelf that dominated the plenum.  The issue was
raised by Vietnam's Premier Vo Van Kiet in late May, when he wrote to Chinese
Premier Li Peng to protest against the Cretone deal.

	Vietnamese sources say Li responded on 25 June by offering to hold
technical talks to discuss their territorial disputes, while at the same time
complaining other countries were violating China's offshore holdings.

	Vietnamese observers interpreted this as a reaffirm by Peking that the
Spratly Islands - a potentially oil-rich archipelago also contested by Brunei,
Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan - and the nearby oil exploration
concession granted to the US firm, belonged to China.

	Vietnamese officials reported that the central committee plenum was
unable to agree whether to classify China having "expansionist" designs in the
region.  "Older party officials argued that China has continued on the road to
socialism, so we should make allies with the Chinese and ignore small
conflicts," one official said.  "But younger leaders said China has adopted a
two-faced policy towards Vietnam and is using socialism as rope to tie
Vietnam's hands."

	Despite these differences, officials said the plenum agreed to a call
from military representatives for funds to buy ammunition for the cash-starved
armed forces.  Other Vietnamese observers also said the appointment of the
head of the army's political department, Lieut-Gen. Le Kha Phieu, to the
central committee's secretariat - which runs party affairs on the day-today
basis - should be interpreted as recognition of the need " to prepare for
possible conflict."

	Over the past five years, Hanoi demobilised roughly half of its former
1.2 million-strong army.  Further, the abrupt loss of aid from the former
Soviet Union has made it difficult for the military to maintain its inventory
of Soviet-supplied aircraft, tanks and warships.  Vietnam's navy, for example,
consists of a handful of ageing Soviet and US-built frigates and patrol boats
and is in no position to seriously challenge the powerful Chinese fleet.

	Disagreements between Vietnam and China over their land border also
resurfaced, despite efforts to heal a 13-year rift stemming from China's attack
on its southern neighbor in 1979.  Le minh Nghia, chairman of Vietnam's
Continental Shelf Committee, says China currently occupies 36 small areas
totalling some 8,000 ha along the border that Hanoi considers to be Vietnamese
territory.  Shooting was reported in MAy between the two sides not far from the
Friendship Pass crossing point, where according to Vietnamese officials -
Chinese forces moved a border marker 400 m into Vietnam.

	These incidents have come at a time when Sino-Vietnamese relations
appeared to be improving following last November's summit in Peking between the
two countries' party and government leaders.  Since November, both sides have
reopened numerous trading points and signed agreements normalizing air, sea,
rail and telecommunications links.

	A further indication of Hanoi's sense of being besieged was apparent in
the plenum communique, with the central committee calling on the country's
security forces to "remain highly vigilant to firmly put to failure all schemes
and acts  of peaceful evolution." These are Hanoi's codewords for alleged US
intervention in overthrowing the Soviet and Eastern European communist parties.

	The central committee also acknowledged that the party faced domestic
threats.  " The Soviet party collapsed because of the great distance between
the party and ordinary people," one party source said. " So we need to renew
our party and try to bring it closer to the people."

	However, Vietnamese and foreign observers say spreading corruption,
nepotism and abuse of power by officials is causing the party become increasing
isolated from the general population.  Nhan Dan, the party daily, reported in
May that the party the party faced difficulties recruiting new members since
the collapse of socialism in the Soviet Union.  It cited the example of the
northern coastal province Thai Binh, where only 906 young  joined the party
last year, down from 1,700 in 1989.

	In apparent recognition of these problems, the plenum communique called
party reform and reorganization "the most important task of decisive
significance for the revolution."

	A few days later, the party daily said renewing the party would include
"purifying the party contingent" and overcoming "all manifestations of
indiscipline, arbitrariness and autocracy in the party."

	The party will also step up efforts to rewrite its ideology, which been
outdated by moves towards a free-market economy.  " We have to renew our
concept of socialism," says Dang Xuan Ky, a central committee member and
director of Hanoi's Marxist-Leninist Institute.

	But he also admitted that most Vietnamese were far more concerned about
the economy than communist ideology.  "If the economy doesn't improve and the
living standards of the people get worse, then we will not be able to carry
ot our goals," he said. " So the party must exert all of our efforts to
improving the economy first."

	Ky said that the party chief Do Muoi had been asked to lead the effort
to reform the party.  He will be assisted by Nguyen Duc Binh, a politburo
member and conservative former director of the party's Nguyen Ai Quoc Institute
who was name to join the secretariat during the plenum

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Typos are mine

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