From Guns to Greetings: Defrosting China's Borders
Tension has also eased at the Sino-Vietnamese border. In the Friendship Pass area, in China's southwestern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Chinese border troops have just finished clearing landmines left from confrontations in the late 1970s.
Vietnam and China normalized relations in 1990, and in 2002, the two countries agreed to settle demarcation of the border by 2008. The troops have been ordered to step up mine clearances.
In two campaigns from 1992 to 1994 and from 1997 to 1999, Chinese troops cleared more than 6,800 mines from 130,000 square kilometers along the Friendship Pass.
"You face death every day," says Wei Lianhai, who has done the job for almost 10 years.
In June 1998, Wei and his comrades were setting up detonation devices in a minefield, and one soldier was so nervous he pulled a fuse before the order was given. They had to evacuate immediately, but one was trapped in vines on the ground. They managed to pull him free and run to safety before the mine went off.
When they cleared the last landmine on July 5, making the Friendship Pass zone a mine-free area, everybody roared with relief.
They had reason to rejoice, as they had smoothed the way for the two countries to develop tourism, trade and regional integration.
China has been the largest trade partner of Vietnam for two years running, with trade hitting almost 10 billion U.S. dollars in 2006, up 21.4 percent from 2005.
Leaders of the two countries have set a target of 15 billion U.S. dollars by 2010.
In addition, they have pledged to accelerate the establishment of sub-regional economic areas, including the China-ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) free trade zone and trade corridors along the Mekong River, which originates in China, runs through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam and empties into the South China Sea.
"A peaceful border is part of any promising relationship between two armies and two countries, and provides opportunities for increasing mutual respect and trust," says Jiang Yi, the CASS research fellow.
Source: Xinhua
Vietnam and China normalized relations in 1990, and in 2002, the two countries agreed to settle demarcation of the border by 2008. The troops have been ordered to step up mine clearances.
In two campaigns from 1992 to 1994 and from 1997 to 1999, Chinese troops cleared more than 6,800 mines from 130,000 square kilometers along the Friendship Pass.
"You face death every day," says Wei Lianhai, who has done the job for almost 10 years.
In June 1998, Wei and his comrades were setting up detonation devices in a minefield, and one soldier was so nervous he pulled a fuse before the order was given. They had to evacuate immediately, but one was trapped in vines on the ground. They managed to pull him free and run to safety before the mine went off.
When they cleared the last landmine on July 5, making the Friendship Pass zone a mine-free area, everybody roared with relief.
They had reason to rejoice, as they had smoothed the way for the two countries to develop tourism, trade and regional integration.
China has been the largest trade partner of Vietnam for two years running, with trade hitting almost 10 billion U.S. dollars in 2006, up 21.4 percent from 2005.
Leaders of the two countries have set a target of 15 billion U.S. dollars by 2010.
In addition, they have pledged to accelerate the establishment of sub-regional economic areas, including the China-ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) free trade zone and trade corridors along the Mekong River, which originates in China, runs through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam and empties into the South China Sea.
"A peaceful border is part of any promising relationship between two armies and two countries, and provides opportunities for increasing mutual respect and trust," says Jiang Yi, the CASS research fellow.
Source: Xinhua
3 comments:
This is an excellent model for us to follow.
When we have peace, we get to keep everything that we work hard for and passed it on to our children to remember us and our culture.
On the other hand, war will destroyed everything and our children will inherit shit from us and they will not know how hard we worked for them.
I wish they destroy each other so that we can have our land back.
There is nothing wrong with "whishing". Just don't hold your breath, okay?
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