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That's a good article, and I agree with its main message, that this movement against granting 99 year leases to SEZ's is much, much more than mere "anti-China nationalism." At the same time, that element is there. Here is another in-depth article that stresses the nationalistic element more, but is well worth reading: http://chuangcn.org/2018/06/vn-sez-sinophobia/ It's a rather complex mix: China is an emerging imperialist power (and even those who disagree will see it as sub-imperialist, or at least much closer to being imperialist than Vietnam!); its companies play a dominant and very exploitative role in Vietnam; much of the anti-China sentiment among workers targets Chinese - *and Taiwanese* - companies whose factory regimes are considered significantly more exploitative and militaristic than either those western MNCs (who can afford a little better) or, significantly, than local Vietnamese companies; while no-one should ever consider going to war over rocky islands in the South China Sea, the fact that it is the local superpower, China, claiming the entire sea as its own, right up the virtual sea borders of Vietnam, and acting aggressively on it (eg including ramming Vietnamese fishing boats and kidnapping dirt-poor Vietnamese fisherfolk); all these aspects mean that there is a certain progressive and anti-imperialist, even anti-capitalist, thrust to Vietnamese nationalism. On the other hand, there *is* an ugly chauvinism as well brewing behind some of this. Of course, this may draw on valid historical issues (China ruled Vietnam for 1000 years, invaded in 1979, violently seized the Paracel Islands in 1974 while Vietnam was still at war, violently seized one third of the Spratley Islands (killing dozens of Vietnamese soldiers) in 1988) - but of course an overly "historical" discourse is associated with reactionary ideas (exactly as it is in China, all the drawing of maps from the Sung Dynasty of 1000 years ago to try to "prove" ownership of rocky islands etc - why not thereby prove ownership of Vietnam!). And here is the interesting thing: in China, the reactionary nationalism over dominating the South China Sea marches in step with the CCP regime, but in Vietnam the more overtly nationalistic anti-Chinese discourse is ideologically anti-communist and very anti-CPV: their key discourse is that the CPV are "communist traitors" trying to sell out the country to China! Now, this itself has different elements. In claiming the CPV want to betray to China on the question of the rocky islands can only be seen as a right-wing revanchist view, because the CPV very much pushes Vietnam's (just, in my view) claim to the islands, but simply stresses that no Vietnamese blood must be spilt over unpopulated islands. The implication is, therefore, that the anti-communist nationalists advocate war with China over the islands; and the only way that could even possibly be conceived of would be via bringing in the US. On the other hand, where this movement claims the CPV regime is selling out to *Chinese capital* by granting foreign (presumably Chinese) MNCs 99-year leases over significant pieces of real estate, this does have a progressive character, as do the objections to Chinese (and Taiwanese) industrial thuggery and environmental vandalism. Even the last can have a double character; the extent to which some elements are more guided by nationalism could well mean objecting to the leases *because* they are Chinese rather than objecting to such imperialist control in general; but I think that is greatly exaggerated: while the fact that the expected benefactors are Chinese may well have given the movement extra impetus, now when people are in motion against giving up chunks of their country to foreign-controlled SEZ's, this will tend to push the movement in the direction of opposing any such sell-outs. If you look at the photos of the demonstrations, we mostly see '99' crossed out, rather than anti-China slogans. Still another aspect is that many of those protesting today are also objecting to a new government cyber security law, increasing state online surveillance. Again, this tends to get associated with what the opposition sees as the government's "too pro-China" policy, and can be twisted in an anti-communist fashion. Not entirely justified given that the CPV does not need to the CCP to tell it to act repressively; but by any comparison, the Chinese regime is significantly more repressive in virtually all aspects, as well as being more efficient about it (especially at online repression). In other words, many object to what they see as China's influence being both too capitalistic and too anti-democratic; you get a movement that confuses a kind of working class anti-capitalism with ideological anti-communism and with tendencies towards both justified and reactionary nationalism. On Tue, Jun 19, 2018 at 4:34 PM, RKOB via Marxism <marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > ******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > ***************************************************************** > > Confirming the same trend > > http://www.atimes.com/article/vietnam-protests-bigger-than-anti-china-nationalism/ > > > Am 19.06.2018 um 04:28 schrieb mkaradjis via Marxism: >> >> ******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** >> #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. >> #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. >> #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. >> ***************************************************************** >> >> >> Vietnam protesters clash with police over new economic zones: >> https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-44428971 >> >> Video of the demonstration in Saigon on Sunday 10 June 2018 to protest >> against the proposed law to lease 3 special economic zones to Chinese >> developers for 99 years: >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XEc1iHzo6s&feature=share >> _________________________________________________________ >> Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm >> Set your options at: >> http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/aktiv%40rkob.net >> > > -- > Revolutionär-Kommunistische Organisation BEFREIUNG > (Österreichische Sektion der RCIT, www.thecommunists.net) > www.rkob.net > ak...@rkob.net > Tel./SMS/WhatsApp/Telegram: +43-650-4068314 > > > > --- > Diese E-Mail wurde von Avast Antivirus-Software auf Viren geprüft. > https://www.avast.com/antivirus > _________________________________________________________ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: > http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/mkaradjis%40gmail.com _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
