VZCZCXRO0047
OO RUEHDT RUEHHM RUEHPB
DE RUEHHI #1314 3420419
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O R 080418Z DEC 09
FM AMEMBASSY HANOI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0536
INFO ASEAN REGIONAL FORUM COLLECTIVE
RHMCSUU/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RHMFISS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0036
RUEHHM/AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY 0232
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS HANOI 001314 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV ECON PBTS ECIN CH VM
SUBJECT: (Vodka) Shots Reported Across the China-Vietnam Border 
 
REF: HANOI 23; HANOI 134; 08 HANOI 1094 
 
A) Hanoi 23, B) Hanoi 134, C) 08 Hanoi 1094 
 
 
 
SUBJECT: (Vodka) Shots Reported Across the China-Vietnam Border 
 
 
 
¶1.  (SBU) On November 18, Vietnam and China signed a series of 
accords to implement the historic 2008 agreement demarcating 
Vietnam's 1,400-kilometer land border with China (ref A). 
According to contacts familiar with the negotiations, the agreement 
was hastily concluded December 31, 2008 to meet a ten-year deadline 
established when the two sides opened discussions in January 1999. 
Among the most contentious issues remaining to be discussed was the 
exact placement of border markings at the Ban Gioc waterfall, a 
picturesque and remote site in the karst hill country separating 
Vietnam's Lang Son province and Guangxi.  The November 18 accords, 
among other things, settled the Ban Gioc boundary and set the stage 
for discussions on joint tourist development. 
 
 
 
¶2.  (SBU) On November 19 -- the day after the signing of the 
accords -- PolOff visited the Ban Gioc waterfall, and met with 
officers from the Army Border Guards and a representative from the 
Lang Son People's Committee and External Relations Office.  Visibly 
drunk, the commander of the Border Guards, who introduced himself 
simply as Major Hoa, explained that he had just concluded an 
informal "consultation" session with his Chinese counterparts 
across the river, which he said took place monthly or whenever 
circumstances required.  Hoa was hard-pressed to enumerate what 
those circumstances might be, but eventually said that tourists 
sometimes fell into the water.  He bristled at the suggestion that 
Ban Gioc was a "hotspot," though he conceded that the border had 
been "sensitive."  Mostly, though, Hoa seemed nonplussed that it 
was an issue at all.  Hoa showed PolOff the newly installed border 
marker on the Vietnamese side of the falls, pointing to the Chinese 
marker on the other bank, as well as a cleared area near the water 
that he said would eventually accommodate tourists from both 
countries.  He said that he did not know the location of the exact 
border in the waterfall, adding that it was a waterfall and nobody 
can go across it.  "What are a few meters anyway," he concluded, 
"if it means that Vietnam and China are at peace and can prosper 
together." 
 
 
 
Comment: In Vino Veritas 
 
------------------------ 
 
 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Hoa has a point.  Negotiations over Ban Gioc took on 
major symbolic significance last year among nationalistic-minded 
intellectuals in Hanoi and HCMC and the overseas dissident 
community, with territorial concessions -- real and imagined -- 
cast as craven kowtowing.  In reality, however, the border accords 
removed a potential source of friction between China and Vietnam. 
This was a significant achievement, as we noted when the agreement 
was signed, particularly given that the 1979 war with China that 
left up to 20,000 Vietnamese dead was precipitated by a border 
dispute, even if its root cause was Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia 
(ref B).  As if to reinforce the point, on the road back to the 
provincial capital of Cao Bang, the ERO representative, Ly The 
Toan, pointed to villages that had been leveled during China's 
two-month incursion 31 years ago.  It is useful to keep in mind the 
stakes as Vietnam strives to manage pragmatically its asymmetrical 
relationship with China (ref C). 
Michalak