Hà Giang/Người Việt
Editor’s Notes: After China brought in oil rigs into Vietnam’s waters in the South China Sea on May 2nd, tensions between China and Vietnam is escalated by the day . In Washington DC. The US Department of States described China action as “dangerous and intimidating”. At local levels, many US congressmen expressed their concerns about the situation. Congressman Dana Rhorabacher expressed his views during a visit to Nguoi Viet Daily News’ office during an interview with Ha Giang of Nguoi Viet.
Congressman Dana Rohrabacher : What we have here is an arrogrant powerplay on the part of a dictatorship of a totalitarian government. Vietnam is feeling the full force of this now, but we have to remember this is not just Vietnam, this it is also Japan, it is also Taiwan, it is also the Phillipines. What we can see is that the Chinese has made totally unreasonable demand of territorial claims all up and down the coast of Asia, and they plan now to enforce it, and to steal all of the mineral rights way from the people from Vietnam all the way up to Japan.
NV: As a congressman representing many Vietnamese Americans in the area, how does the situation make you feel?
Congressman Dana Rohrabacher : I am upset for a number of reasons. Unfortunately with the communist government in Vietnam, I don’t think they can harness the full power of their population to oppose this power grab by the Chinese. Because Vietnam is a communist government, they are fearful of demonstrations, and we can see this, in this incident where some of the people that have been putting on demonstrations are not being encouraged, some of them are being arrested, still arrested in Vietnam for organizing things to protect their country. Well, the people in Vietnam, perhaps this will let them open their eyes to see that the people themselves are more patriotic than that clique that runs their country. May be this will have a unifying factor behind the Vietnamese to oppose this Chinese thefts of their energy rights, and if the people united can’t stop that, and may be they will have to stop or overcoming their government.
NV: The US State Department described China’s actions in the Vietnam incident as “provocative and unhelpful,” while Daniel Russel, the US assistant secretary of state for East Asia said Washington was concerned about this “dangerous conduct and intimidation by vessels” in the disputed area. In reality, how concerns do you think the US government really is?
Congressman Dana Rohrabacher : To show you how important we think this issue is, you know Loretta Sanchez is a Democrat, and Dana Rhorabacher is a Republican, and we are working very closely on this issue. We want to make sure that America steps forward, and although we have had our differences with the Vietnamese government and we still do, we want to show a unity that all of the people in that part of the world should get together and deter China from being aggressive. The Philippines people are going through the same thing, and then Japan and Taiwan… These things are going lead China to become even more aggressive, if we don’t let them know that we are united against that.
NV: As the Chairman of the Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats Subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, can you speak about the China threat that is either looming in the horizon or being here already?
Congressman Dana Rohrabacher : What we have for the last ten years is an emerging threat of China. I have been sounding off, touting the horns, saying look at this, China has had no reforms at all. It’s true, even in Vietnam they have not had enough political reforms, but at least in Vietnam, the Vietnamese government is only affecting Vietnamese, with China, they started to insist that they will enforce their territorial claims. They claimed in India a territory the size of Texas, and now this is an emerging threat, a great threat because they have made these claims in the past now they think they are tough enough to brow beat people and intimidate them to back away. I don’t think the Vietnamese should back away and the United States should back Vietnam in its insistence that the oil and natural resources in the Paracel island is something that at least partially if not totally belong to them.
NV: What is the Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats Subcommittee’s position on this matter, and is the subcommittee going to recommend something to the U.S. government?
Congressman Dana Rohrabacher : Well, we have been having a series of hearings on the emerging threat of China. For example, they took away Tibet and they are building dams that affects all of the rivers that is going down all the way to the Mekong river, that was one that we have already held hearing on. We have also held hearing on the Chinese territorial claims to these island areas in the South China Sea, which they claimed they own all of the South China Sea. This is a huge threat to Vietnam, huge threat to the Philippines, to Japan, to all of these countries along there. And so we will continue to focus attention and to document the type of aggression that China is committing.
NV: If the situation become more serious, what is the U.S. Government willing to do, and should it do, in your opinion?
Congressman Dana Rohrabacher : I don’t know. I am thinking about that myself. I don’t think that it is up to the United States government to fight everybody else’s battle. I am sorry but the Vietnamese government has not necessarily been a friend of the United States, nor a friend of democracy and freedom. But when you see aggression like that by China, we should do something to deter them. I am thinking about it now. I will give it some serious thoughts.
NV: If the Vietnamese government send a representative to ask for your advice, what will you advise them to do?
Congressman Dana Rohrabacher : I will advise them to have small boats, not war ships, to do everything they could to stop the Chinese from being successful in establishing that oil production in the Paracel island. Already we see Vietnamese boat there, but I would think it would be fine to send in a lot of private boats, to basically have a wall, a protest in the ocean around that facility also to prevent the Chinese to fish and to catch sea turtle in Vietnam’s water, to control fishing production in that area.
NV: What does the Vietnamese government have to do to become more of a friend to the United States?
Congressman Dana Rohrabacher : Well, the most important thing the Vietnamese government has to do to be more of a friend, is to let their people to be free people but that’s hard for them to do, because we have a clique that runs Vietnam now, and they are afraid to have real election, because the clique would not get elected. Well if these people are really patriotic, now is the time to have free election and to have close relationships to democratic countries. We can only get so close to Vietnam, if they continue to put dissidents in jail and don’t have real elections.
NV: What can Vietnamese Americans do to help fight for their country’s sovereignty?
Congressman Dana Rohrabacher : Well we need to find ways of where we can work together. Of course there are things we could not do, we could not help to bolster the strength of the government over their own people. Only they can do that, but we can help bolster the strength of Vietnam against Chinese aggression. We cannot bring the military into Vietnam, but we can send more tools, surveillance equipment, things that will help the Vietnamese government identify what the Chinese are trying to do, and to monitor their waters better. But we cannot send lethal weapons to Vietnam until Vietnam respect human rights, because we can’t send lethal weapons to a government that suppress its own people.
NV: Did you just say that the reason the U. S. cannot help Vietnam more is because it is not a democratic country?
Congressman Dana Rohrabacher : If Vietnam is a democratic country now, you would see more activities from the United States trying to help them, as we are doing with the Phillipines, Japans and India. But as it is now, it is in our interests to helping them to deter Chinese aggression.
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