China claims Hanoi raid killed six

Press, 6 November 1978, Page 8

China claims Hanoi raid killed six

i NZPA-Reuter Peking j China has accused Vietnam of attacking a Chinese ! border commune, wounding 12 commune members and militiamen, kidnapping eight [Others, and later killing six, j of those kidnapped. Peking’s official Hsinhua News Agency, in a report ! from Nanking, said the Viet- ; namese authorities had rejected Chinese demands to return the kidnapped and the bodies of the six. It said i the incident had taken place past Wednesday. i Hanoi has claimed that China sent large numbers of soldiers to invade Vietnamese territory, wounding and ; killing many Vietnamese .'with gunfire. i It appeared to be the most serious border incident reported since August 25, when China claimed that four Chinese had been killed, and dozens injured at the Friendship Gate border area. Vietnam then said two Viet-' namese had been killed and (25 injured. ,

The Sino-Vietnamese quarrel and a number of border! clashes were sparked earlier! this year by Vietnam’s al-1 leged mistreatment of ethnic 1 Chinese population. China claims Vietnam has forced out more than) 160,000 Chinese residents as part of a policy of discrimination and ostracism..! Vietnam has denied the charge, claiming that so-, called Chinese troublemakers have been responsible. In Moscow, the Soviet ( Union, fresh from signing a; bilateral friendship treaty | with Vietnam, pledged its full support for Hanoi; against “the expansionist en- i croachments” of Peking. I Speaking at a Kremlin, ! rally marking the 61st anniversary of the Bolshevik

Revolution, the Prime Minister (Mr Alexei Kosygin) said the Soviet Union wanted to cement further fraternal friendship with Vietnam. “The heroic Vietnamese

people . . . defending its ' I independence and its sover- ’ eign rights against Peking’s ' great-power expansionist en--1 croachments” was at the I forefront of Kremlin attention. he declared. II China’s Vice-Premier (Mr : Teng Hsiao-ping) is in Bangkok at the beginning of a J three-nation tour of SouthEast Asia. , The Chinese leader, who only recently completed his • historic visit to Japan, will (be making an effort to reassert Chinese influence in the I region. J Official sources said his! (talks with the Thai Prime I Minister (General Kriangsak ■ Chamanand) would be domi-j , nated by regional political! issues and armed conflicts in Indi china.