Nguyen Ky Hung

Nguyen Ky Hung (NKH): When and why did you begin to pay particular attention to the Mekong River and the South China Sea? Ngo The Vinh (NTV):  I engaged in journalism and prose writing since my student days, when I grew quite concerned with social problems.  In the 1960s, when my concern centered on the appalling living conditions of the Thuong people in the Central Highlands, I wrote the novel Vong Dai Xanh (The Green Belt).  After immigrating overseas, I began in the 1990s, through close relationship with the Mekong Forum group, to take heed of development

and environmental issues surrounding the Mekong River, the third major river in Asia which is  considered still relatively intact in  comparison with other  important  rivers in the world.  It must be   said that I was entirely captivated by that river after  reading books  recounting the  Mekong Expedition  of a group of French  explorers in the 19^th century. 

With tremendous difficulty, the group traveled up the powerful Mekong River -- at that time still flowing through the wilderness -- in search of a waterway upon which to conduct trade with China.  It was a courageous expedition which lasted more than two years and met with a tragic end.

Subsequently, I embarked on an intensive study of the Mekong River with the realization that it is no less than a lifeline to hundreds of millions of inhabitants of seven countries in its basin, a lifeline controlled by China.  From an overall perspective of the whole interconnected region, we cannot but include the South China Sea which is undergoing "Tibetization" -- the Paracels were forcefully occupied by China and the Spratlys are currently disputed territory.  Whether it's the story of a river, of the sea dotted with islands, or of dry land, the consistent main theme of my book is "the threat generated by China's ambition of endless expansionism". 

NKH:  Can you give a brief description of your book Cuu Long Can Dong Bien Dong Day Song (Mekong River Drained Dry, South China Sea In Turmoil) so that those readers of Viet Tide who have not read it would be able to follow what you wrote? 

NTV: In terms of content, the book is about two major issues faced by Vietnam. (1) Cuu Long Can Dong (the Mekong River Drained Dry) refers to the Mekong River of 4,900 km, an international river flowing through seven nations: Tibet, China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. 

Only from the 1950s did the international community begin to take note of the rich potential of the Mekong River, and this led to various plans for its exploitation.  In 1957, during the cold war period, the Mekong River Committee (MRC) was established under the support of the UN, its office located in Bangkok.  The MRC was an intergovernmental organization composed only of the four countries of the Lower Mekong Basin, namely Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. 

Though initially consisting of only these four countries, the MRC managed to work out quite an ambitious plan to exploit resources of the Mekong River in the areas of hydroelectricity, irrigation, fisheries and navigation, with a view to stimulating economic development of the whole Lower Mekong Basin.  But the plan stalled because the Vietnam War spread over the three Indochinese countries. 

After 1975, even as the Vietnam War ended, another terrible event occurred: genocide in Cambodia.  Only beginning in 1994 after the cold war period, when China opened its door to the outside world, were plans for exploiting the Mekong River re-activated.  The Mekong River Committee, renamed the Mekong River Commission, was put into operation again.  With its office located in Phnom Penh, it retained the same four member countries, while adopting a fundamental change in regulations, specifically that no member country had the power to veto Mekong River exploitation projects envisioned by other countries. 

What is worth noticing here is the uncooperative attitude on the part of China.  Even though it was invited, China refused to join the Mekong River Commission.  Obviously China meant to have complete freedom in exploiting the River in accordance with its own purpose and ambition.

(2) Bien Dong day song (the South China Sea in turmoil) is the second main theme of the book beginning with China's forceful takeover of the Paracel Islands from Vietnam in 1974.  But Beijing's ambition did not stop there.  The Chinese are encroaching on the Spratly Islands and even attempt to control the South China Sea and its oil reserves.  "Two steps forward, one step back" and the "divide-and-rule" strategies are practiced by China all the time. 

The irony is that such strategies seem to pacify many people.  For example, in the recent summit meeting in Phnom Penh (November 6, 2002), Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji "raised high an olive branch" when signing with ASEAN members a joint declaration according to which all Parties would exercise self-restraint "to avoid conflict" over the Spratly area that is being the cause of dispute among China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei.  In spite of that, everyone knows that, as things stand, Beijing has the upper hand in the South China Sea, specifically in the area of the Spratlys; whereas the Parcel Islands go unmentioned.

NKH: Can you provide our readers with a clearer picture of China's exploitation plans for the Mekong River?  Did you grow more anxious after your last trip to Yunnan province where you traveled to the Manwan Dam which is the first large hydroelectric station built on the upper reaches of the river? 

NTV: Back in the 1970s, China had already planned to build a Yunnan-Mekong cascade of eight huge dams on the upper reaches of the river which flows through Yunnan, with an expected total generating capacity of 15,400 megawatts of electricity.  It was estimated that it would cost 7.7 billion dollars for the construction of the dams which would be capable of electrifying and industrializing the southwest region of China which was still underdeveloped.

The outside world was virtually uninformed about these plans.  But even though the plans for the Yunnan dams were conceived in the 1970s, for want of the required budget not until the 1980s was the first dam at Manwan, with capacity of 1,500 megawatts, put under construction.  It was completed 13 years later in 1993, providing adequate electricity to the provincial capital Kunming, Chuxiong industrial area, and southern coastal districts.  The second dam at Dachaoshan, expected to produce 1,350 megawatts, was begun in 1996 and completed in December 2001. 

Construction of the third dam, Xiaowan, started in April 2001.  Regarded as "the Mother Dam", with a total capacity of 4,200 megawatts, Xiaowan has a 15-billion-cubic-meter reservoir drawing water from the Mekong River.  It will be 292 meters high, the tallest dam in the world, as tall as a skyscraper of 100 stories.  Xiaowan is expected to begin operation in 2010 and to reach its full capacity by 2013.  It is the second largest hydroelectric facility in the world, second only to the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River, also in China.

It's noteworthy that China always totally conceals its plans for the exploitation of the Mekong River, as if they were military secrets.  This causes real anxiety to the countries in the lower reaches of the river, rendering them inert for they do not know how to deal with the situation.

On those occasions when Beijing decides to be open slightly, all it has had to say were good things about the Yunnan dams, provision of such information being "episodic in nature", and not generated from serious research.  For example, the Chinese claimed that the three dams they initially planned -- Manwan, Daichaoshan and Jinghong -- having high walls and seasonal reservoirs that store a maximum amount of water in the rainy season and release it during the dry season, will have the effect of controlling floods and preventing drought for the downstream countries. 

Yet knowledgeable Cambodians and Vietnamese can immediately point out that without the natural cycle of floodwaters from the upper reaches coming down to force the Tonle Sap River to reverse its flow back into the Tonle Sap Lake, it will spell the death of the lake not far in the not distant future.
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