Vietnam minister seen reprimanding Chinese rail workers on TV
Staff Reporter
2015-01-11
Former ambassador Qi Jianguo, currently deputy head of the Vietnam-China Friendship Association, shakes hands with Pham Van Dy, the political commissar of the 7th Military Region of the Vietnam People's Army in Ho Chi Minh. (File photo/Xinhua)
Vietnam's minister of transport Dinh La Thang should not have reprimanded workers of a Chinese contractor responsible for a railway project in Vietnam after scaffolding collapsed causing a death, according to an opinion piece in China's nationalistic Global Times.
A motorcyclist was killed and two people were injured when the scaffolding collapsed at the construction site of Thanh Xuan 3 terminal of the Cat Linh-Ha Dong rapid transit railway project on Nov. 6 last year, followed by another collapse on Dec. 28, but four people trapped in a taxi were unharmed.
Footage of Dinh reprimanding staff from China Railway 6th Bureau Group Company was shown in a three-minute segment on government-owned Vietnamese TV station VTC broadcast during prime time on Jan. 6, according to the Global Times. The piece said the airing of the footage, which showed Dinh pointing his finger and shouting at the Chinese staff members was an attempt to rekindle anti-Chinese sentiment in the country. The leader of the Chinese team is seen nodding his head in the footage.
The railway project has exceeded its initial budget and has cost nearly US$300 million due to multiple delays. The paper said construction did not begin until October 2011 because local Vietnamese residents refused to relocate to make way for the project.
Qi Jianguo, the former Chinese ambassador to Vietnam, said the Vietnamese minister should not have reprimanded the Chinese contractors and that the incident should not be blown out of proportion, given that accidents on construction sites are relatively commonplace in the country. Experts cited by the paper said that the collapse was the Chinese contractor's fault, but that the Vietnamese government also failed in its responsibility to monitor the project.
The construction site is divided from a busy road by a flimsy fence, which has gaps in it.
The 13km-long rapid transit railway project aims to reduce the travel time between Cat Linh and Ha Dong in Hanoi to 24 minutes and is set to be completed by June this year.
Sino-Vietnamese relation touched bottom in May last year when China National Offshore Oil Corporation deployed the Haiyang Shiyou 981 oil rig near the disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea and sparked a standoff between Chinese and Vietnamese boats leading to violent anti-Chinese riots in Vietnam.
