The Overseas Chinese in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, 1979-82

Abstract

Since early 1980, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) and the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) have devoted considerable energy to developing instruments through which they could exert influence and authority over private commerce. These efforts are due largely to the regime's uncertainty over the possible revival of the Overseas Chinese (Hoa Kieu) role in commerce and distribution. The expropriation of Ho Chi Minh City businesses during 1978 was followed by a period of reformist economic policies and then in late 1980 by a supplementary round of controls involving registration for industrial and commercial enterprises in the City and the southern provinces. Hanoi, having initiated reformist policies in 1979, sought to assess profit and facilitate the collection of taxes from reviving commerce, much of which was in Chinese hands. It referred to these measures collectively in the same terms as in 1978-attempts to insure continuity of the socialist transformation of commerce. Throughout late 1980 and most of 1981, the SRV sustained a campaign against violations of socialist economic principles that urged vigilance against lax management, illegal sale and distribution of scarce commodities, and bribery. Though the Overseas Chinese rarely were singled out by name in this campaign, the categories of economic activities found in violation of state regulations were those in which the Chinese still had some influence or interest, for example, construction materials and the gold trade. At the same time, the reformist economic policies continued to be consolidated by the regime through 1982. Early that year the Council of Min-