2014年5月15日 星期四

Anti-Chinese Violence Turns Deadly and Spreads in Vietnam



越南反華暴亂向北蔓延,已有中國人喪生

Thanh Tung Truong/Reuters
周三,在越南平陽省消防隊員在一個起火的中國人開的製鞋廠附近休息。

越南河靜省——針對外國工廠的暴力活動蔓延到了越南的其他地方,並有致命事件發生,官員周四稱,數百名越南抗議者衝進越南中部一家工廠鬧事,造成一名中國人死亡,數十人受傷。
暴力活動最初集中在南部大城市胡志明市周圍,事態的蔓延反映出該地區對中國日益增長的敵意,中國努力鞏固其在兩個海洋中大片水域的主權主張,而當地其他國家長期以來認為那些水域屬於他們。
  • 檢視大圖 周三,示威者揮舞着越南國旗,在太平省北部的中國工廠舉行抗議活動。
    Reuters
    周三,示威者揮舞着越南國旗,在太平省北部的中國工廠舉行抗議活動。

在越南中部以北的河靜省,數百名抗議的越南工人周三下午闖進台塑集團鋼鐵廠,襲擊了在那裡工作的中國人,僱用這些中國工人的台灣公司周四稱。據公司消息,暴力導致一名中國人死亡,90人受傷。
該公司稱,抗議者放火,對設備打砸搶,並補充說,襲擊剛一 開始,公司就向地警方請求加強安全保護,政府派出車輛撤離中國工人,他們已在午夜時分全部離開。台塑集團說,河靜省省長在周三晚間10點左右來到這家工廠 查看情況,並與安全官員會面,試圖恢復秩序,但暴亂一直持續到周四早上。
越南最近突然爆發暴力活動的導火索是中國一個決定引發的憤怒,中國在越南海岸附近部署石油鑽井平台,還派了一個海岸衛隊和其他船隻組成的艦隊保護,儘管此前中國承諾過要通過外交方式解決領土糾紛。
成為這次抗議目標的工廠是近幾年湧入的外國投資的一部分,這些工廠給持續了20幾年的、時而很快但並不均衡的越南經濟增長做出過貢獻,還有一部分緊張氣氛源於越南人對中國工人湧入的憤慨。
雖然最初的暴力與北京在南海的舉動有關,但抗議者卻把他們 的憤怒部分地發泄在台灣工人身上,這促使中華航空公司周四向胡志明市派出兩架包機以應接突然增多的想離開越南的台灣人。該航空公司在一份聲明中表示,加上 另外兩次常規航班,公司周四可以將1325名乘客運出來。也有報道稱,數百中國大陸人越過柬埔寨邊境逃到了金邊。
台灣外交部長林永樂(David Lin)周四對一個立法委員會說,台灣正在採取措施確保所有想離開越南的台灣人都能離開。他還說,台灣肯定會向越南尋求為遭受損失的台灣公司做出賠償。
隨着暴力向越南其他地區蔓延,胡志明市北部的工業區平陽省的工廠經理對前幾天的暴亂所造成的損失進行了調查,他們抱怨說,警方的回應軟弱無力,或者根本就不存在。
「我給警察打電話,打了一次又一次,」香港人彭志華 (Pang Chi Wa,音譯)說,他是總部在台灣的服裝公司HWA Jong Group在越南的一家工廠的經理。他說,抗議的人群在這家工廠所在地周圍的街道來回遊行了幾次,後來才決定襲擊,在襲擊發生前的那段時間裡,他向警察的 求助都沒得到響應。
「也許那是故意的,也許是因為他們應付不了,但現在他們似乎後悔了,」彭志華在說到警方響應時這樣說,他說,他和其他員工曾試圖與抗議者講道理,後來因為抗議者衝進工廠開始打劫,他們才藏了起來。
他所在工廠門口的辦公室一片狼藉,地上到處是碎玻璃、被打翻的花盆,以及散亂的文件。他和其他目睹了這場騷亂的人說,抗議人群不時喊着愛國口號,還譴責中國,但後來,政治信息被打劫、以及對工廠漫無目標的破壞所替代。
「我真不知道這從何而來。我們在這裡從來沒見過這種事情,」彭志華說,他說他在越南工作有十年了。「開始似乎是針對中國的什麼事兒,但後來那成了一種借口。」
這次暴亂的發生正是中國多方位加強其領土主張的時候,這些主張針對的是該地區的幾個國家。越南在貿易和投資方面嚴重依賴中國,但該國官員為了政府的目的,也甘願通過國家媒體煽動反華情緒。
平陽省工業區另一家台灣工廠的經理彭志明(Peng Zhi-ming,音譯)說,他覺得他在闖進工廠進行打砸搶的人群中認出幾個工廠以前的僱員,這家工廠約有70名工人。彭志明說,當人們意識到他們可以逍遙法外時,人群的數量增加了。
他說,「他們來了一次又一次。我們給警察打電話,但沒有警察過來。我不知道他們為什麼沒過來,但事實是警察沒有出現。」他說,對他辦公室的打劫停下來了,那隻不過是因為人群轉移到新的目標去了。
另一家台灣工廠的廠主說,他和其他投資者幾乎別無選擇,只能修復和重建工廠,在恢復生產之前,靠其他地方的友好工廠主幫助完成加工訂單,這位廠主因害怕受到指責而要求不具名。他說,很多情況都是工廠門口的辦公室遭到洗劫,但生產設備則相對完好。
他說,「投資者將來會慎重考慮越南,但是我們已經在這裡,回不去了。我們不想與政治發生任何關係,他們為什麼要找我們的茬兒呢?」
一個在微博上用M___zi網名的中國女子,周四上午在她的微博賬號上傳了被打砸的辦公室照片,這位女子在木材行業工作。
「公司辦公室的所有電腦都搬走了,地上到處是文件和碎片,宿舍的門和玻璃都砸了。部分工廠已經放火燒的差不多了,」她在微博上寫道,她把暴徒稱為「喪心病狂的魔鬼們」。
儲百亮(Chris Buckley)和Chau Doan自越南平陽省、Gerry Mullany自香港報道。王霜舟(Austin Ramzy)自台灣台北對本文有報道貢獻。Bree Feng自北京對本文有研究貢獻。
翻譯:張亮亮

 

Anti-Chinese Violence Turns Deadly and Spreads in Vietnam

Thanh Tung Truong/Reuters
Firefighters rested on Wednesday near a Chinese-owned shoe factory that was set afire in the Binh Duong Province of Vietnam.
周三,在越南平陽省消防隊員在一個起火的中國人開的製鞋廠附近休息。
 HA TINH PROVINCE, Vietnam — Violence against foreign-owned factories spread elsewhere in Vietnam and took a deadly turn, with officials saying Thursday that one Chinese worker had been killed and scores more injured when hundreds of protesting Vietnamese went on a rampage in a factory in the central part of the country.
The explosion of violence — initially centered outside the southern metropolis of Ho Chi Minh City — reflected growing animosity in the region as China works to solidify its claims over vast parts of two seas that other nations have long considered their own.
  • 查看大图 Demonstrators waved Vietnamese flags during a protest at a Chinese-owned factory in Vietnam's northern Thai Binh Province on Wednesday.
    Reuters
    Demonstrators waved Vietnamese flags during a protest at a Chinese-owned factory in Vietnam's northern Thai Binh Province on Wednesday.

In Ha Tinh Province, in the northern part of central Vietnam, hundreds of protesting Vietnamese workers entered the Formosa Plastics Group steel plant on Wednesday afternoon, attacking Chinese nationals contracted to work there, the Taiwan-based company said Thursday. One Chinese worker was killed and 90 were injured in the violence, according to the company.
The protesters set fires and smashed and looted equipment, the company said, adding that it had asked the local authorities to beef up security as soon as the assault began and that the government sent vehicles to evacuate Chinese workers, who were removed by about midnight. The head of the Ha Tinh provincial government visited the factory around 10 p.m. Wednesday and met with security officials to try to restore order, Formosa Plastics said, but the rioting continued until early Thursday.
The spasm of violence afflicting the country was ignited by anger over China’s decision to deploy an oil rig escorted by a flotilla of coast guard and other ships off the Vietnamese coast despite promises to settle territorial disputes by diplomacy.
The plants that were the target of the protests, part of an influx of international investment in recent years, have contributed to more than two decades of uneven, but at times rapid, economic growth in Vietnam, with some of the tensions rooted in anger at an influx of Chinese workers.
While the initial violence was tied to Beijing’s actions in the South China sea, the protesters focused some of their rage at workers from Taiwan, prompting China Airlines to send two charter flights Thursday to Ho Chi Minh City to handle a surge of Taiwanese who wanted to leave Vietnam. Along with two regularly scheduled flights, the airline it would be able to transport 1,325 passengers Thursday, it said in a statement. There were also reports of hundreds of mainland Chinese fleeing across the Cambodian border to Phnom Penh.
Speaking to a legislative panel Thursday, Taiwan’s minister of foreign affairs, David Lin, said Taiwan was taking steps to ensure all its citizens who wanted to leave Vietnam could do so. He added that Taiwan would definitely seek compensation for damage to Taiwanese businesses in Vietnam.
As the violence spread elsewhere in Vietnam, factory managers in Binh Duong Province, an industrial area north of Ho Chi Minh City, surveyed the damage from previous days’ rioting and complained that the police response had been listless or nonexistent.
“I called the police, called and called,” said Pang Chi Wa, a Hong Kong man who works as a manager at HWA Jong Group, a garment maker based in Taiwan with a factory in Binh Duong. He said that the crowds of protesters had circled the streets around the factory several times before deciding to attack and that during that time, his pleas for police help went unanswered.
“Maybe it was deliberate, maybe it was too much for them to deal with, but now they seem to regret it,” Mr. Pang said of the police response. He said he and other staff members had tried to reason with the protesters but then hid from them as they pushed into the factory premises and began looting.
The front office of his factory was a mess of shattered glass, toppled potted plants and records strewn on the floor. He and other people who witnessed the mayhem said the crowds often shouted patriotic slogans and denounced China, but then the political message gave way to looting and untargeted attacks on factories.
“I don’t even know where this came from. We’ve never seen this here before,” said Mr. Wa, who said he had worked in Vietnam for a decade. “It seemed to start as something against China, but then that became an excuse.”
The riots come as China has been pushing on several fronts to assert its territorial claims against several nations in the region. Vietnam is heavily dependent on China for trade and investment, but officials have also been willing to whip up anti-Chinese passions through the state-controlled media when it serves the government’s purpose.
Peng Zhi-ming, a manager at another Taiwan-owned factory in the Binh Duong industrial suburbs, said he thought he recognized several former employees in the crowd that invaded and trashed the factory, which employs about 70 workers. Mr. Peng said the crowd grew as people appeared to sense they could act with impunity.
“They came around again and again,” he said. “We called the police, but nobody came. I don’t know why they didn’t come, but the fact is they didn’t.” He said the looting of his offices died out only because the crowd moved on to fresh targets.
Another Taiwan factory owner, who requested anonymity citing fears of recrimination, said he and other investors had little choice but to repair and rebuild their factories, relying on friendly factory owners elsewhere to fill in orders until production resumed. In many cases, he said, the production equipment was relatively unscathed, while front offices were ransacked.
“Investors will have to think more about Vietnam, but we’re here already and can’t back out,” he said. “We don’t want anything to do with politics, so why did they pick on us?”
A Chinese woman with the Weibo handle M___zi, who works in the timber industry, posted photos of her smashed office on Thursday morning on her Weibo social media account.
“All the computers in the office were taken. The ground is filled with files and fragments, the doors and windows of the dormitories were all smashed. Some parts of the plant that were set on fire have been pretty much burned,” she wrote, calling the mob “frenzied demons.”
Chris Buckley and Chau Doan reported from Binh Duong Province, Vietnam, and Gerry Mullany from Hong Kong. Austin Ramzy contributed reporting from Taipei, Taiwan. Bree Feng contributed research from Beijing.
 
 

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