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Jiang strikes informal note on visit to former foe Vietnam

Chinese President Jiang Zemin struck a calculatedly informal note on the last day of a state visit to former foe Vietnam making a nearly hour-long walkabout among cheering crowds. Householders leant out of upper storey windows in a bid to catch a glimpse of the Chinese leader as he wandered around the quaint lanes of this historic trading port on Vietnam's central coast.

Vietnamese security men tussled briefly with journalists as Jiang's motorcade swept into the narrow streets. But security was otherwise low-key with a group of excited youngsters even able to run alongside the Chinese delegation, which also included vice premier Qian Qichen, as it toured the town. Jiang stopped several times to talk to bystanders as he sounded a note of reconciliation between the two nations which fought a brief but bloody border war in 1979 and last clashed militarily as recently as 1988. The communist leader even posed with a baby proffered him by an excited resident.

A centre of Chinese trade with Vietnam before the West first arrived in Asia, Hoi An still houses dozens of old Chinese temples, merchant houses and assembly halls, several of which Jiang visited. In one he sat down to speak to the temple's ethnic Chinese dignitaries and signed the vistor book in carefully calligraphed Chinese characters. Hoi An still has a small Chinese community of just over a thousand, several of whom were in the crowd wearing traditional Mao-style suits. It is the remnant of a community which was once large throughout Vietnam but which was decimated by the exodus of hundreds of thousands of boat people in the run-up to the 1979 war.

Sweating slightly in the fierce mid-morning heat, Jiang insisted he had enjoyed the walkabout and the reception he had been given by ordinary Vietnamese. But he declined to be drawn on whether he had consciously set out to emulate former US President Bill Clinton who staged a similar walkabout during his landmark reconciliation visit here in late 2000. "Eight different gods will have eight different ways to cross the sea," Jiang said, citing a Chinese proverb. The crowds who turned out to see the Chinese leader in this port and tourist resort of 60,000 people were not as big as the huge crowds who turned out to see Clinton in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

But there seemed to be a genuine warmth to the reception Jiang was given here -- residents called out to the Chinese leader from their homes and he responded with a wave. The colourful walkabout summed up much about Jiang's three-day visit here -- only his second since the communist neighbours patched up relations in 1991. Just a single science agreement was signed during the Chinese leader's talks in Hanoi, along with a small soft loan.

No progress was made either on the key border disputes which still divide the former foes. Instead the visit was heavy on communist pomp and ceremony as the former foes signalled their determination to set aside their historic differences in the interest of their very similar state-managed economies, which are much the fastest growing in the Far East.

The visit had been "very good, very successful," Jiang insisted. "It's gone very well," said Vietnamese Trade Minister Vu Khoan who escorted the Chinese leader on his walkabout. The trade minister, who is widely tipped to become Vietnam's new foreign affairs supremo later this year, acknowledged the visit had been thin on agreements but refused to be drawn on whether he had found that disappointing. After the walkabout, Jiang sped off to a textile factory in the nearby third city of Danang for his final engagement of the visit.

Agence France Presse - March 01, 2002.


Jiang lets hair down at end of Vietnam trip

HOI AN - Chinese President Jiang Zemin let his hair down on Friday at the end of a visit to Vietnam aimed at boosting mutual confidence with a communist ally and traditional rival that was hailed as a success by both sides. He hugged babies and shook hands with cheering wellwishers then took a cooling dip at a

Before heading to the airport after three days in Vietnam, the 75-year-old president, a keen swimmer, could not resist the sea off central Vietnam's legendary "China Beach", a popular rest and recreation spot for U.S. servicemen during the Vietnam War. Earlier, taking a leaf from former U.S. President Bill Clinton's book, Jiang chatted with some of the thousands who thronged to greet him in the narrow streets of the ancient trading port of Hoi An, now a booming tourist town. Asked by Reuters as a left one of Hoi An's picturesque Chinese temples how he had enjoyed his visit to Vietnam, he replied in English: "I have enjoyed it very much."

Asked if it had been successful, he replied jovially: "Very successful!" Dressed in an open-necked shirt and slacks, he clearly enjoyed the enthusiastic reception from the crowd waving Chinese and Vietnamese flags. He waved and shouted "Cam On", meaning "thank you" in Vietnamese, as the crowd cheered him on his way. Jiang did not respond when asked if he was disappointed there had not been more progress on resolving festering territorial disputes with communist ally Vietnam, which include rival claims to the reputedly oil-rich Spratly Islands.

Frienship after "winding road"

During his trip Jiang stressed the friendship and economic ties that had grown between the countries, despite a "winding road" in the past, an oblique reference to historical rivalry and conflicts that included a brief but bloody border war in 1979. Diplomatic ties were not normalised until 1991. Hoi An was the site of the first Chinese settlement in southern Vietnam. It was a major port from the 17th-19th centuries and an important stop for Chinese sailors. Today about two percent of its 60,000 people are ethnic Chinese.

But it has never before had such a senior Chinese visitor. "This visit will change the face of Hoi An. We are very happy to receive him," said Pham Nhuong, 60, a businessman in the crowd dressed in traditional Vietnamese robes. Back at his luxury hotel on China Beach just outside Danang, about a half hour's drive north, Jiang took a 10-minute swim. Lifeguard Pham Son said Jiang swam about 200 metres (yards) offshore, surrounded by about 20 bodyguards and lifeguards, in waters patrolled throughout his visit by Vietnamese gunboats. "There were a lot of security people in the water with him," Pham said. "The president swam as if he was in a cage."

Vietnam's Trade Minister Vu Khoan told Reuters the aim of Jiang's visit was to boost confidence between the two countries, and said Hanoi was pleased with the way it had gone. "We highly appreciated this visit," he said. "It indicated we are determined to continue our cooperation." Asked if he agreed with analysts and diplomats who saw it as a big boost for the new Communist Party leadership under Nong Duc Manh, he said: "Not just only the leadership, we support each other in the process of reconstruction and reform." In the past two decades Vietnam and China have both moved far from their old centrally planned communist systems to embrace capitalist methods in the name of socialism. They are now the fastest growing economies in East Asia and Hanoi sees China's far bigger and more dynamic economy as a model.

Vu Khoan said he was not disappointed Vietnam had not managed to obtain from China the same sort of preferential tariffs offered to regional partners Cambodia, Mynamar and Laos. He said these were least developed countries. "Vietnam is a normal developing country," he said. At the same time, he said Jiang had reaffirmed China's proposal to grant Hanoi the same tariff treatment as members of the World Trade Organisation, which Beijing has just joined.

He said this would mean "much better tariff rates in comparison with the existing regime". "During this visit this decision has been reconfirmed at the highest level," he said. Khoan said the two countries had also agreed to encourage major bilateral business projects, including bauxite mining in Vietnam's Central Highlands region and paper and electricity production. He gave no other details.

By David Brunnstrom - Reuters - March 01, 2002.