Published 12:40 IST, January 13th 2022
Chinese troops threw stones at Vietnamese construction workers at border fence: Report
Chinese soldiers were recorded throwing stones and shouting abusive slurs at unarmed Vietnamese construction workers in Ha Giang province of northern Vietnam.
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Soldiers from the Chinese People Liberation Army (PLA) were recently recorded throwing stones and hurling abuses at unarmed Vietnamese construction workers in Ha Giang province of northern Vietnam, bordering China. The Hong Kong Post reported that the Chinese soldiers shouted and threw stones at the Vietnamese digging along the Vietnam-China border. In response, the civilian workers guarded the riverbanks on the Vietnamese side in a bid to prevent erosion when the river water was tight.
"Seriously?"
— Lee Ann Quann (@AnnQuann) January 3, 2022
Soldiers from People Liberation Army shouting and throwing rocks at Vietnamese excavators along the Sino-Vietnam border.
Civilian workers have been strengthing the river banks on the Vietnam's side to prevent landslides as the current picks up. pic.twitter.com/IuiRfy4BJp
A popular blog, which is prohibited by the Vietnamese government for anti-China articles, also published an article referencing the incident. While commemorating the 1979 China-Vietnam War on January 4, the blog pointed out that the Chinese side is trying to encroach on a territory to the North, even after signing an agreement on the demarcation of the land border in late 1999 on the China-Vietnam border. According to the article, people do not know the Chinese stand and are confused when the Chinese side acts like this on the China-Vietnam border.
Vietnam-China tensions
Meanwhile, it is to mention that the incident comes amid a time when Vietnamese agricultural exports to China have halted and Chinese ports are clogged and the Vietnamese trucks have returned from border areas. After China raised its border restrictions with its neighbours to contain COVID-19, it impacted the trade between the two nations, prompting Vietnam to ask Beijing to relieve the restrictions. The commerce ministry of Vietnam said that this disruption has a "severe impact" on bilateral trade and resulted in significant losses for both enterprises and individuals.
Earlier this week, thousands of trucks were held up at the border after allegations that the imported COVID-19 cases were discovered in Pingxiang, a border city in Guangxi. Since then, China has tightened border controls with its neighbour, which has seen an uptick in infections since late November. Additionally, China has also put a four-week ban on dragon fruit imports from the Friendship Pass, which is the largest road crossing between the two countries, until January 26, according to South China Morning Post.
(Image: AP)
Updated 12:40 IST, January 13th 2022