VN News (Apr. 16, 1997)

[Vu Thanh Ca <vuca@envi.env.civil.saitama-u.ac.jp>]

April 16: Vietnam, US sign copyright accord 
April 16: Vietnam's future steeped in its cultural past 
April 16: Vietnam Urges Completion of Refugee Repatriation from HK 
April 16: China and Vietnam prefer friendly consultations on Nansha Islands
April 16: A fragment of Indonesia thrives in Vietnam 
April 16: Malaysia jails Vietnamese fishermen for encroachment 

Vietnam, US sign copyright accord 

Hanoi (UPI) -- Vietnam and the United States have reached Wednesday a
copyright agreement considered a significant step towards reaching an
overall trade accord between the two countries.

U.S. officials say, ``This historic agreement creates, for the first
time, a legal framework to protect the artistic, musical, literary,
cinematic choreographic, computer software and other works of both
countries from copyright infringement.''

They said the agreement will help to head off a growing problem of
copyright violations that could sour relations with U.S. companies and
Congress, which will have to approve any trade accord.

U.S. trade negotiator Joseph Damond acknowledged that even after the
copyright agreement is ratified by both sides, enforcement will remain
a ``critical'' challenge.

The timing of the enforcement will depend in large measure on American
business, such as the film, software and recording industries. These
sectors are expected to negotiate royalty agreements with the
Vietnamese government.

The accord is expected to be signed within the coming days after both
sides have approved Vietnamese and English texts of the deal. It will
then take effect not more than six months after signing.

U.S. officials say they will soon be working with their Vietnamese
counterparts on how to identify counterfeited material.
                 ___________________________________


Vietnam's future steeped in its cultural past 

A Vietnamese professor was attending a dinner party in Budapest 17
years ago when the conversation turned to Buddhism.

"I was ashamed," said the professor. "They all thought that, as I was
Vietnamese, I would know all about Buddhism. But I knew nothing."

Eastern Europe was the place for all aspiring Vietnamese intellectuals
in the Cold War era. The development of academic institutions depended
on knowledge gleaned abroad from communist-oriented allies in the
Soviet Bloc and China.

The professor found himself facing a dichotomy. He was Vietnamese and
a patriot, but he knew next to nothing about one of the most important
tenets of Vietnamese culture and tradition.

Despite being well-educated and well-traveled (in eastern Europe, at
least) he was dismayed.

What had gone wrong? Politically, Vietnam had accepted and gained much
from its allies, he thought, but what was it losing?

That professor is still a member of the Communist Party, but he
dabbles in private business and says he believes strongly in
fortune-tellers. He also carries strong concerns that the history of
the country he loves so much has been, "taught out" of generations of
schoolchildren.

For all the Marxist-Leninist definitions bandied about, Vietnam is and
always has been built on a base of fierce nationalistic pride. The top
of every official document and letter in the country carries the motto
"Independence - Freedom - Happiness", and everyone, from party
ideologue to ordinary citizen, businessman, student and peasant
farmer, shares the same desire.

Analysts now question whether - after dreadful experiments with a
hard-line, socialist, centralized command economy, especially in the
late 1970s and early 1980s, which almost bankrupted the country -
Vietnam remains communist at all. Vietnam certainly still defines
itself as communist, but is the Marxist-Leninist ideology as strong as
before, or is Vietnam governed first and foremost on principles of
pure nationalism?

As the country's doors creaked open, foreign influences, for so long
held at bay by the country's economic and social isolation from the
West, began creeping in. This in turn has sparked increasingly vocal
criticism that Vietnam's traditions and culture are under threat from
foreign-generated evils, the worst of which is "peaceful evolution"
aimed at subverting the state and everything the party holds dear,
including its grip on power.

The basis for all the arguments is that, throughout Vietnam's
4,000-year history, Vietnamese culture and tradition has been clearly
defined. The new revolutionary battle cry is to stop the flood of
social evils and defeat any attempts at "peaceful evolution", a term
applied by China and Vietnam alike to describe foreign attempts to
undermine the ruling communist parties.

Writing in the current issue of the monthly Tap Chi Cong San
(Communism Journal) Nguyen Hoa of the Military Political Institute,
which is controlled by the Ministry of Defense, said warfare, boycotts
and isolation had not prevented the development of successful
revolutionary and national liberation movements. After failing to stop
the tide of socialist ideology, Western strategists needed a different
approach, he argued.

"The arms race in combination with economic and cultural attacks
proved its effectiveness in the process of collapsing the Soviet Union
and eastern European socialist countries," Hoa said.

The Eastern Bloc lacked the strength to fight the "strange virus" that
brought economic collapse and ideological and social confusion.

"'Peaceful evolution' and the economic and cultural weapons under the
cover of 'political democratization' and 'economic liberalization' are
direct threats to socialism in Vietnam," Hoa said.

Hoa believes war brings the initial breakthrough in aggressive acts,
while cultural power is the weapon to complete the process of
conquest. The weapons of such aggression are many and varied. Culture
and religious values in Vietnam had suffered direct challenges and
many families could not fulfill the duty of spiritually nurturing new
generations, he said.

"Pop, rock, Levi jeans, Coca-Cola, videos and Hollywood have created a
new wave throughout the world, overcoming all obstacles created by
state borders and national cultural identities," said Hoa.

He added that, having beaten the B-52s more than 20 years ago, the new
challenge to national defense was from "information bombs". The number
of radio stations broadcasting to Vietnam increased from 13 in 1980 to
37 in 1996 "with their ill-will Vietnamese language programs."

Hoa said bad foreign influences would only succeed if they coordinated
with internal threats to the national culture.

"To be proud of being Vietnamese is the best answer to our challenge
and it will become a direct motivation for us in our course toward
being a rich people, strong country, and a civilized and just
society," he said.

The professor agrees wholeheartedly. But his argument is not based on
the paranoia and insecurity increasingly exhibited by dogmatists. He
thinks information - the more the better - is the key. He knows some
will be bad and some will be good, but that the vast majority will be
just plain ordinary information.

The professor believes that people need to learn for themselves, and
maybe more importantly, they need to learn more about themselves.

If not, there is a genuine fear that Vietnamese social and cultural
traits that all Vietnamese say they hold so dear will be demeaned for
all time. -- SMCP
                 ___________________________________


Vietnam Urges Completion of Refugee Repatriation from HK 

Xinhua English Newswire

Vietnam today urged the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to
speed efforts in repatriating Vietnamese refugees back from Hong Kong,
a report of the official Vietnam News Agency (VNA) said.

Vietnamese government suggested that the repatriation, which was
carried out under the Comprehensive Plan of Action (CPA), should be
completed by May 31, 1997.

It also asked for Hong Kong's help in sending its officials there to
verify the refugees' nationalities during April, the report said.

At present, there are some 3,700 Vietnamese refugees remaining in Hong
Kong.

Last month, Vietnamese government discussed with UNHCR representatives
measures for an early completion of the repatriation.
                 ___________________________________


China and Vietnam prefer friendly consultations on Nansha
Islands

China Business Information Network

Both China and Vietnam hope to deal with the Nansha Islands issue
through friendly consultations, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman
Shen Guofang said at a routine press conference held in Beijing
Tuesday.

In response to a reporter's question, Shen said there was a meeting
last week between China and Vietnam on the Nansha Islands issue and
both sides agreed to solve the issue through constant consultations.