Although there can be differences in some issues between certain overseas Vietnamese  (OVs) and the Vietnamese government, the former and the latter share the same view on the protection of the country’s sovereignty over Truong Sa (Spartly) and Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelagos.>> Vietnam holds memorial service for 64 Gac Ma heroes>> Vietnam to hold requiem for all those who sacrifice for sovereignty >> Vietnam to construct Hoang Sa exhibit house this year>> Sculptor proposes building stone island for Truong Sa heroes

This is the same opinion of many OVs from different countries who joined a visit to Truong Sa and the DK1 platform that was organized by the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese and the Vietnam People’s Navy from April 18 to 27. According to many OVs, the tour of Truong Sa and the platform created a good opportunity for Vietnamese at home and those living abroad to understand and get closer to each other.Return at sincere invitation Nguyen Phuong Hung, editor-in-chief of the U.S.-based KBCHN newswire, told Tuoi Tre that he visited his homeland Vietnam following a sincere invitation from the Vietnamese Consulate General in San Francisco. “In 2011, when I was on a flight to Vietnam, I burst into tears when hearing a notice from the crew that the plane was entering Vietnam’s airspace,” Hung recalled. That was the first time that Hung had returned to Vietnam after 36 years living abroad. “When I came back to the U.S., I told my friends there that I was regretful to have left Vietnam and that I should have paid a visit to the country sooner to witness its positive changes and get the warm welcome of the administration as well as our compatriots.”  After returning to Vietnam at the invitation of the Vietnamese Consulate General, Hung said the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry offered favorable conditions for him and two other overseas Vietnamese journalists, Etcetera Nguyen (Viet Weekly) and Vu Hoang Lan (Bolsa TV), to go on a trans-Vietnam journey to learn about the country’s changes. “I made my first visit to Truong Sa in 2012,” Hung said. A number of extremists abroad always speak ill of the government that it has not safeguarded Truong Sa, he said. “Meanwhile, Vietnamese people and soldiers are living and working on 21 islands of Truong Sa, which is obvious evidence that proves Vietnam has tried its best to protect its sovereignty over the archipelago,” Hung said.  After coming back to the U.S. from the 2012 visit, Hung reported on Truong Sa and the country’s development on KBCHN, he said. “The reports initially faced hostile responses from those who have yet to understand the country’s real situation, but their attitudes could not prevent me from looking to the fatherland.” Hung added that he has returned to Vietnam nine times and visited Truong Sa two times to date.

Vietnam should attend more int’l seminars on East Sea Le Thanh Hai, a researcher at the Polish Academy of Science, said issues related to overseas Vietnamese should be dealt with by a ministerial level agency. Hai elaborated that this agency should promulgate proper policies to tap into a resource from a community that is larger than the capital city of Hanoi’s population and whose contribution to Vietnam’s GDP is greater than the foreign direct investment inflow.  Regarding the East Sea issue, Hai said Vietnam does not attend international seminars on the sea so often, so Chinese scholars have taken advantage of that chance to make illegal claims to sovereignty over the waters. He recommended that Vietnam should frequently participate in such seminars to voice their arguments about the East Sea issue in order to provide the international community with a better understanding of Vietnam’s sovereignty over the sea area.Getting closer to each other Regarding Vietnam’s sovereignty over Truong Sa and Hoang Sa, overseas Vietnamese in general and the Vietnamese government share the same view even though they may have some differences in other matters, said Nguyen Tien Loc, chairman of the Nguoi Viet Hai Ngoai (Overseas Vietnamese) magazine, based in Vancouver, Canada. The recent Truong Sa visit is a good chance for Vietnamese at home and those who living abroad to get closer to each other, Loc said. He added that during the visit, every member of the tour was very friendly and got along well with each other, from a Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, naval officers to overseas Vietnamese.  

The state should pay more attention to second- and third-generation overseas Vietnamese who are the descendants of those who left Vietnam after 1975, the chairman suggested. They cannot speak Vietnamese very well but they have a love of their fatherland, he said, adding that these dynamic overseas Vietnamese have high educational levels and hold less prejudice against the state. “I hope that such young overseas Vietnamese can visit Truong Sa in the future,” he added.Impressed by Vietnamese’s care for Truong Sa Vu Xuan Duong, a Vietnamese Japanese, said he has been impressed by the care the Vietnamese government has given to people and soldiers on Truong Sa.    Such care reflects the state’s determination to protect the country’s sovereignty over its seas and islands, which has made OVs feel at ease, Duong said.  “Many organizations have given support to Truong Sa, but I have been specially impressed with the building of houses for naval soldiers on Da Tay A and Da Tay C Islands,” he said. “These houses have been built using money contributed by Tuoi Tre’s readers to a program the newspaper launched in 2011.” He once donated to the program when he was in Japan, Duong said.  The Vietnamese Japanese also expressed his belief that OVs will continue contributing their grey matter and materials to Truong Sa through such programs.

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