COMMENTATOR: Thank you.
ANCHOR: The first quick question for you, Chris. Should we stock up for war with China. A Communist state, we know. But surely not?
COMMENTATOR: I'd say not this month, Mike.
ANCHOR: Jamie. War or not?
JAMIE SONG: I hope not, Mike. Who wants war when we're all making so much money?
ANCHOR: You're not saying no, though. So why? An unprovoked attack on Vietnam? What is the point?
JAMIE SONG: Mike, as you Americans say, let's cut the bull. Vietnam is exploring oil reserves in what it calls the Nam Con Son Basin, in a joint venture with an American company, Conoco. There is a long-standing agreement among governments in this region to develop the resources of the South China Sea jointly. We have repeatedly said that we will not tolerate Vietnam's breach of the agreement. President Tai has put a Washington law firm, Covington and Burling, on retainer to act for Vietnam…
ANCHOR: And they say Vietnam is within its rights.
JAMIE SONG: That's what they're paid to say. Vietnam was not within its rights to start work without regional agreement. So we stopped them.
ANCHOR: You bombed Haiphong, Ho Chi Minh City, Cam Ranh Bay, and Da Nang.
JAMIE SONG: As you know, in any military action a government has a responsibility to safeguard the lives of its troops. To take the area back, we had to neutralize Vietnamese air and sea power.
ANCHOR: Chris, isn't that over the top?
COMMENTATOR: The Foreign Minister is a skilled advocate for his government. Technically, he is right about the regional agreement. He's reiterating a policy which has been in place for many years. You know, Mike, I hear many times people talking about the unpredictability of China. But China is about the most predictable country in the world. If it's going to attack Vietnam, it'll tell us some time beforehand. And there has been a lot of sabre rattling.
ANCHOR: But Jamie says, apart from Vietnam, no war for the moment. Our first caller is from Europe, the German capital, Berlin. Go ahead, Germany.
GERMANY: Good evening, Foreign Minister.
JAMIE SONG: Good evening.
GERMANY: The definition of Fascism is authoritarian nationalism. Given the almost absolute control by the Communist Party, would you describe China as a Fascist country?
ANCHOR: An apt question from Germany. Jamie Song, are you a Fascist?
JAMIE SONG: We prefer the words disciplined to authoritarian and patriotism to nationalism. But Mike would be unhappy if I became semantically technical. Fascism like Marxism was or is rooted in Europe. In Asia, there is a cultural tendency to respect our elders, our parents, and our government. We tend not to question so much. We don't have political shouting matches like in your elected parliaments.
ANCHOR: Fascist or not, Jamie?
JAMIE SONG: I am the wrong generation. I am a Socialist and a Confucianist.
ANCHOR: Chris. Is Jamie a Fascist?
COMMENTATOR: Jamie's right when he says that Fascism is too European to have that label tagged to him. But the main difference is that Hitler destroyed Germany by overambitious territorial expansion. China isn't an empire builder in that style.
ANCHOR: Hanoi, Vietnam. You're live with the Chinese Foreign Minister, Jamie Song.
HANOI: Foreign Minister, while your aircraft are bombing Vietnamese people will you admit honestly that the assault has nothing to do with Conoco but that China is frightened of a newly democratized Vietnam?
JAMIE SONG: Absolutely not.
ANCHOR: Then what's the problem?
JAMIE SONG: Your anger should be against President Tai, who has misled the Vietnamese people into thinking they have sovereign right over territory which is not theirs d for making them believe that China would not respond.
ANCHOR: What does that mean, Chris?
COMMENTATOR: This has happened before. There have been small naval battles over the past twenty or thirty years between China and Vietnam and China and the Philippines.
Anchor: Texas, you have a question?
Texas: I'm in the oil business, Foreign Minister. Our own surveys show d excuse me for being blunt at your northern oilfields are garbage. Fifty barrels a day per well. Your offshore fields are OK. But soon your country will need to import eight million barrels a day just to keep up with development.
ANCHOR: And your question?
TEXAS: You've taken the Spratly and Paracels because you're facing an oil crisis. Yes or no?
ANCHOR: Jamie, are you short of oil as well as grain?
JAMIE SONG: We're not self-sufficient. But neither is the United States. Your caller is quite right about our need to import eight million barrels a day. And we'll do that by securing our supply bases and diversifying.
COMMENTATOR: If I could clarify, Mike. Foreign Minister, is that why you've now implemented your claim to the South China Sea?
JAMIE SONG: We still intend to develop jointly with our neighbours. However, the threat posed by Vietnam which also has a shortage of oil s forced us to clarify the position. But I can assure all your viewers, wherever they are in the world, the trade routes to and from the Pacific will remain open. This is an isolated regional dispute about which there is nothing to fear. China's business is trade and development. Nothing will deter us from that course.
The unprotected convoy of twelve Toyota Hi-Ace vans moved slowly west through the potholes in the appallingly unmaintained surface of Vietnam's main highway. The passengers, a mixture of Europeans, Japanese, Koreans, Americans, Canadians, and Australians, were used to the uncomfortable five-hour journey between the port city of Haiphong and Hanoi. There were three teachers of English, a banker from the European Union sent to advise on the setting up of small businesses, a doctor and nurse from Me´dicins Sans Frontie`res, two representatives from the UN's World Food Programme and UN Development Programme, a diplomat from the Australian embassy, seven Scandinavian aid workers, a Korean delegation examining bridge-building contracts, and, ironically, a Japanese team from Toyota, which was expanding its distribution network in northern Vietnam. Many of the passengers had been attracted by the backwardness of Vietnam. Haiphong, with its dilapidated French Colonial buildings, ugly Communist apartment blocks, and archaic, Soviet-style shipyard, instilled an even greater affection for this brave and battered country than the tourist stopovers of Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.
Rain fell in sheets. The driver of one van had to lean out and clear the windscreen with a rag because the wiper had broken. Often the convoy stopped, one of the vehicles trapped in a huge crater, its back wheels spinning, spewing up waterlogged filth, while dozens of people pushed from behind to get it out. The discussion among the foreigners was mainly whether they would take the French evacuation flight out of Hanoi that evening. Civilian flights had been stopped. Air Vietnam had flown its own airliners to Bangkok.
The swelling of the tributaries of the Red River made the ferry journeys more hazardous. The convoy was given priority, but that meant shifting other vehicles out of the queue, which stretched bumper to bumper from the riverbank. Out of the twelve vans, only nine made it on to the first ferry and three were waiting behind at the crossing when the tragedy happened.
Some of the passengers were having tea at the little stalls set up on the muddy roadside. Tiny cassette players blared out Western pop music. Hawkers attracted attention to themselves by banging their wooden boxes and yelling. The ferry arrived at the riverside with the clanking of its sides and shouts from the ferry boys who caught and threw ropes. Drivers started their engines. They revved and screamed as the wheels battled with the mud. Horns blared. All this sound drowned the first warning sounds of fighter aircraft overhead and low. Visibility was poor. Clouds came and went. The wind blew heavy thick gusts of rain into the river settlement. It wasn't until the clouds moved away for a moment that those on the ground were able to see clearly the dogfight going on above between one Vietnamese and two Chinese fighter planes.