Chinese Workers Head to Vietnam

Posted by Reading Time: < 1 minute

Mar. 31 – Chinese workers have been flooding Vietnam to work on huge Chinese industrial projects in the electricity, cement, building and chemical sectors.

One construction project located in Quang Ninh province has as much as 2,000 Chinese workers while using cement and electricity coming from Chinese companies.

Tran Ngoc Hung, president of Vietnam Construction Association, told AFP: "Chinese contractors have won numerous key projects in the electricity, cement, building and chemical sectors… and sent thousands of workers and equipment to Vietnam."

Tuoi Tre also quoted Tran Hong Mai, from the Ministry of Construction, as saying that Chinese contractors often won contracts in Vietnam because received support from their country.

Despite the economic benefits of trading with China, locals still view the growing Chinese presence with distrust because of past wars, border disputes and contending claims on the Spratly and Paracel archipelagos in the South China Sea.

A project being developed in the Central Highlands to mine for bauxite garnered protests from Vietnamese scientists and intellectuals saying that the project compromised sovereignty and the environment.

China and Vietnam fought a short but bloody war in 1979 but in December finished demarcation of their long-disputed land border.