Sense of fear lingers for Chinese nationals in Vietnam after violent protests
Of the twenty or so passengers boarding the uncharacteristically-empty flight from Hong Kong to Ho Chi Minh City on Friday morning, most were blissfully unaware of the anti-China riots that took the country by storm just two days earlier.
Of the twenty or so passengers boarding the uncharacteristically-empty flight from Hong Kong to Ho Chi Minh City on Friday morning, most were blissfully unaware of the anti-China riots that took the country by storm just two days earlier.
“Where did this happen?” an American-Chinese backpacker asked me as I was reading media reports of the violence on our shuttle bus to the Vietnam Airlines flight in Hong kong. “That’s where we’re going,” I told him.
There is no point in keeping [the rioters] out, they are too many. You better go, it’s getting dark
Ho Chi Minh saw the largest anti-Chinese protests on Wednesday since the two Communist countries ended their bloody border skirmishes in 1989, that lasted a decade after China’s invasion of the South East Asian nation in 1979.
Dozens of buildings were torched on the outskirts of the southern Vietnam’s commercial hub as many Chinese-owned businesses – including those run by Hongkongers, Taiwanese and Singaporeans – were attacked by mobs and looted. The number of dead and wounded is still without official confirmation.
On the Vietnam-bound flight, an elderly American couple sitting next to me wondered aloud why so few people were travelling – until they sat down and read the newspaper.
A shriek and a debate ensued, ending with them dismissing concerns as the protests seemed only targeting Chinese.