Chinese number two launches four-day visit to Vietnam
HANOI - Chinese number two Li Peng launched a four-day visit to Vietnam Friday aimed at boosting burgeoning trade
links and cementing political relations between the communist neighbours.
The speaker of Vietnam's National Assembly, Nguyen Van An, hosted an official welcoming ceremony for his
Chinese counterpart at the presidential place.
"Our two (ruling communist) parties and our two countries want to consolidate lasting ties of friendship which
the high level visits of recent years have greatly strengthened," Li said during a brief photocall.
"In the few hours I have been in Hanoi, I can already see that there have been a fair few changes," said Li, who
previously visited in 1992 and 1996.
The Chinese number two is due to hold talks with all of Vietnam's top leaders, including communist party chief
Nong Duc Manh, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai and President Tran Duc Luong, foreign ministry officials said.
"This visit shows the determination of both countries leaders' to unceasingly develop relations between Vietnam
and China," particularly trade and economic ties, said an editorial in the mouthpiece daily of Vietnam's ruling
communist party, Nhan Dan (The People).
In the 10 years since the former foes normalised relations after their brief but bloody 1979 border war, trade
has mushroomed from a paltry 30 million dollars in 1991 to two billion dollars last year.
And the official figures do not count the still unregulated "semi-official border trade" between small-scale
traders, let alone the massive smuggling which has flooded Vietnam with cheap Chinese goods.
Li is due to spend his last night here in the border province of Quang Ninh, which has been transformed by the
explosion of trade with China, posting growth rates topped only by the major cities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh
City in the past few years.
China's economic take-off over the past decade has made it an increasingly important investor and aid donor
here.
Last month a Chinese-led consortium saw off tough competition from Europe and the United States to win a
50 million dollar stadium contract here.
And during a visit to Beijing by Prime Minister Phan Van Khai last year, China granted 300 million dollars in
soft loans to renovate ageing industrial plants constructed during the Vietnam War.
Since the collapse of their long-time patron, the Soviet Union, in 1991, Vietnam's communist authorities have
come to see China as a model of how to pursue economic growth without losing their tight political control.
The two governments reached a landmark agreement on their disputed land border in December 1999,
followed by an agreement on their sea border in the Gulf of Tonkin in December last year.
But the ideological soulmates remain at odds over the South China Sea where both lay claim to the disputed
Paracel and Spratly Islands.
Vietnam's announcement that it intended to establish a new administrative structure for the 20 islands in the
Spratlys under its control sparked a diplomatic row with Beijing which marred a visit here by Chinese Defence
Minister Chi Haotian in February.
Vietnam and its southeast Asian partners, three of whom also have territorial claims in the Spratlys, have been
trying to negotiate a code of conduct for the disputed area.
But Beijing has so far rejected Hanoi's insistence that the code also apply to the Paracel islands, which have
been entirely under Chinese control since
Vietnam has yet to respond to a compromise proposal made by the Philippines in July for all geographical
references to be dropped from the code.
Agence France Presse - September 7, 2001.
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