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| Chasing the Olympic Torch in San Francisco, USA and Saigon, Vietnam |
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By Minh T. Nguyen 7 May 2008 I was partially involved in this newly-found organization called VietWill that was co-founded by a bunch of Vietnamese UC Berkeley alumni. Its mission is to bring awareness to China’s aggression against Vietnam in plight of the Paracel and Spratly Islands (also known as the Hoang Sa/Truong Sa) controversy. In short, they are a collection of islands in the South China Sea that has been claimed by China, Vietnam, Taiwan as well as the Philippines. The dispute over the islands dates back as far as ancient times with the references to these islands in each countries’ respective history and culture (if you drive around in Saigon, you can even find two streets named Hoang Sa and Truong Sa in district 1). In a battle in 1974, China seized control of the south part of then-owned Paracel Island from Vietnam and did the same 1988 for 6 of the Spratly Island with many casualties on the Vietnamese side. However, the controversy erupted last year with China making illegal claims on 80% of South China Sea, capturing Vietnamese fishermen, sinking their fishing boats, fining them $15,000 each, or sometimes even injuring or killing Vietnamese fishermen that have been making a living on the sea for their entire lives. These event sparked wide-spread demonstrations within the Vietnamese overseas community, but more importantly also from large groups in the Vietnamese youth community in Vietnam who cry out for the Vietnamese government’s complete lack of intervention in this issue. So on April 9th, 2007, I find myself joining the VietWill group in front of AT&T park in San Francisco awaiting the torch relay from Beijing, passing out flyers, brochures and T-shirts to bring awareness to this issue and demand for a stop of China’s aggression against Vietnamese fishermen. While some of my Chinese friends disagreed with me on this aspect, I was also there to show my support for the people in Tibet and Burma. However, we were outnumbered by the sea of Chinese supporters that were brought in on buses from as far as Los Angeles. At any rate, the city of San Francisco pulled a prank on us and in a not-so-surprise move, when the torch relay was relocated to the other side of the city, easily avoiding the crowds of demonstrators as well as supporters. Nevertheless, I am glad that I participated in the event in San Francisco, and remind myself that I live in a region of the world where I can voice my opinion without fear of any retribution. Fast forward to April 29th 2007 (last week to be exact). The Olympic torch relay is slated here for Vietnam in its final city before returning to China. A series of bloggers in Vietnam have called for a mass demonstration on this day, so I find myself in the streets of Saigon, Vietnam, roaming around with my camera near the sites of the planned demonstrations. With uniformed and plain-cloths police very well present in district 1, I was bit concerned whether my excuse of "just being a tourist here and happen to take pictures of demonstration" would sell, given the deportation out of Vietnam of another Vietnamese American protester who I met up in San Francisco. Unfortunately, after hours of waiting at the planned site in Saigon, the demonstration did not materialize here. I found out afterwards, that 1000 miles away, some 150 people including democracy activists, aggrieved farmers and families of fishermen from Thanh Hoa province that were killed by the Chinese navy on the Eastern sea, gathered in front of Dong Xuan market in Hanoi protesting against Chinese aggression and invasion of the Spratly and Paracel islands. Only 15 minutes later, more than 300 security police rushed in to snatch slogans; tearing down banners; twisting arms and bashing people in the protest. In the meantime, I make my way towards the torch relay opening ceremony site near the opera house and like in San Francisco, find myself vastly outnumbered by a sea of Chinese supporters. I tried initiating contacts with several of them, but they neither spoke English nor Vietnamese, making me question again whether these are locals or were flown in from China. I see Chinese organizers do the crowd control, as well as cheerleading. Knowing that I probably won’t find any demonstrations by Vietnamese locals in this area, I quickly drive back to my hotel to upload the pictures and videos captured so far, only to return to the ceremony site to just have missed the torch run by. Ah well, I wasn’t here for the torch itself anyways. Looking back at these two events, I have several thoughts. To the supporters of the Olympics, I say that I respect your opinion, enthusiasm and support of the Olympics. It’s your right to voice your opinion as much as it is mine to point out that China’s bid to the Olympics a decade ago was made with promises of showing progress towards human rights. The Olympics was already politicized then. In San Francisco I was being yelled at by some extremist as “losers.” Frankly, when China forbids foreign reporters to report freely from Tibet (let alone even enter Tibet), or when anyone provides a militia made of children with weapons and support, we are all losers in this game. However, what’s more interesting to note is that San Francisco and Saigon differed greatly in how it tolerated the demonstration. In San Francisco, demonstrations were planned in advance and highly-publicized, the freedom to voice your opinion was celebrated, and enthusiasm for the upcoming protests went high among community activists. Yet, in Vietnam, the Vietnamese government itself prohibited all demonstrations, and warned that any protest will be dealt with “harshly.” The demonstrators in Hanoi must have had a lot of courage to speak out—heck, I was concerned about my safety just taking pictures of policemen. A week prior the event, a prominent Vietnamese blogger calling for a protest was already put under house arrest and detained. Now, does the Vietnamese government stand for its people or for the Chinese?
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