Vietnam-China Border Issues in Lang Son Province

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HANOI 000064

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/MLS, G/TIP and INL

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ETRD PGOV TIP KWMN KCRM SNAR VM

SUBJECT: Vietnam-China Border Issues in Lang Son Province

Ref A) Hanoi 23; B) 08 Hanoi 90; C) 08 Hanoi 398

HANOI 00000064 001.2 OF 002



1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Following the recent announcement of the
completion of border demarcation between China and Vietnam (Ref A),
the DCM visited the Chinese border province of Lang Son January 7 -

8. Provincial officials emphasized expanding trade relations with
China while admitting a growing trade imbalance (two-thirds imports,
one-third exports). The DCM discussed the growing problems of Avian
Influenza from smuggled fowl from China and trafficking in persons
while hearing from the police that drug trafficking in the province
is on the wane. END SUMMARY.

Vietnam-China Border Trade in Lang Son
--------------

2. (SBU) In the DCM's meeting with Lang Son's People's Committee
Chairman Vi Van Thanh, he explained that the province, with a 250
kilometer border with China, is largely dependent on agricultural
exports to China and the rest of Vietnam. There are four border
gates between China and Vietnam in the province, two of which
process a significant amount of the trade between the two countries.
The Friendship border gate processed approximately $640 million
worth of industrial goods in 2008 while the Tan Thanh border gate
processed approximately $360 million worth of primarily agricultural
products, according to his estimates. The total volume of trade
between the province and China is over $1 billion, with China
accounting for roughly two-thirds of the total amount and Vietnam
only one-third. The province is in the planning stages of
developing a free trade economic zone that will comprise 85 square
kilometers on each side of the border with China. Thanh was hopeful
that the zone's establishment would serve to boost cooperation and
trade between the two countries.


3. (SBU) Customs officials noted that overall trade at the Tan
Thanh border gate increased from only $79 million in 2003 to $360
million in 2008. 2008 was better than 2007, they said, but
acknowledged that there had been less Tet-related trade than last
year due to the global economic crisis. They explained that the
Chinese authorities chose to divide the responsibilities between the
two gates, authorizing the Friendship border gate to process
industrial products and chemicals while determining that the Tan
Thanh border gate would focus on agriculture. Border
Defense/Immigration officials noted that the Tan Thanh border post
only allows processing of trade and is not equipped to process
tourists.


4. (SBU) During a brief visit to the Friendship border gate on
January 8, it was evident that the bulk of trade flowed from China
to Vietnam, as many large Vietnamese trucks sat empty waiting to
enter China and many Chinese trucks were loaded with industrial
products waiting to be cleared through Customs into Vietnam. Trade
at the Tan Thanh border gate seemed more balanced, as most
Vietnamese exports into China are agricultural products, and several
Vietnamese trucks filled with fruits and vegetables waited at the
border for Customs to clear their entry into China. Customs
officials at the Tan Thanh border gate explained that the volume of
Chinese trucks was three to five times that of Vietnamese trucks,
noting that they processed anywhere from 200-370 trucks a day
through the border. They said that while their Customs office had
not yet been upgraded to allow electronic processing of goods
through the border, there was an electronic application on the
Customs website to be completed in advance to streamline the
processing of trucks.

Avian Influenza
--------------

5. (SBU) Meeting with former IVP Participant Dr. Duong Anh Dung,
Chief of the Epidemiology Department at the Lang Son Provincial
Preventative Medicine Center, the DCM discussed the province's
leading role in fighting avian influenza. Dung noted that all
poultry must be tested and found free of taint prior to being
transported across the border. Officials from both Vietnam and
China along the border meet regularly and highlighted the existence
of a China-Vietnam Bird Flu Task Force. Dung asserted that area
farmers would comply with requirements to destroy infected fowl due
to the harsh punishments if they chose to ignore government edicts.
When asked directly about the problem of corruption and poultry
smuggling from China into Vietnam (Ref C),Dung reaffirmed his
belief that the province was doing a good job as evidenced by the
fact that there had been no reported cases of bird flu. (Note: It
was reported on January 13 that the province had experienced its
first case in 2009 of chickens infected with the H5N1 virus imported
from China. The reports also noted the rampant availability of
counterfeit seals certifying that poultry is free of avian
influenza. End Note.)


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Trafficking in Persons
--------------

6. (SBU) In the DCM's meeting with the provincial head of the
Women's Union and the Deputy Chief of Police for the province, who
also heads the province's Committee 130 on Trafficking in Persons
(TIP),provincial officials said the police investigated 25 separate
TIP incidents, arresting 28 individuals and rescuing 72 female
victims. Only one of the victims was from Lang Son province while
the remaining victims were from the Central Highlands and other
mountainous areas. TIP in the province is entirely one-way into
China, the police affirmed, and was the result of a gender imbalance
in China and uneducated Vietnamese women being tricked or forced
into prostitution or marriage in China. They said that, while
trafficking was on the rise, they had yet to see any cases of forced
labor. The police also highlighted their excellent cooperation with
Chinese border police.


7. (SBU) The province also boasts a technical school for trafficking
victims run by the Women's Union and funded in part by IOM.
However, the police explained that according to Vietnamese law
female victims are returned immediately to family members and local
authorities in their home province and therefore the shelter and
school only assist victims from Lang Son province.

Drug Trafficking
--------------

8. (SBU) The police emphasized that drug trafficking across the
border was on the decline over the past several years. While heroin
continues to be the number one drug trafficked, they only seized six
kilos in 2008. Most illegal drugs enter Vietnam via Laos and then
travel from Vietnam into China. Drugs are more frequently
trafficked through large border posts (like the Friendship border
gate) due to the difficulty of traversing the mountains along the
border. Methamphetamines are not a large problem, with only one
case of seized meth totaling 100-200 tablets coming from China in
the past year. The police also noted that chemical precursors were
not a problem.

Michalak