Most illegals enter by air

Authorities in Kien Giang told an online meeting with the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control on Friday there had been days when the province had received up to 10 people returning from Cambodia, with all testing positive for the new coronavirus.

Now, medical centers across the province no longer have the capacity to handle more Covid-19 patients.

The province shares a borderline of 56 kilometers (34.8 miles) and 62,000 square kilometers of sea area with Cambodia.

Daily, thousands of fishing vessels and boats trading oil and seafood operate across this maritime area, with managing entry a hard task, a provincial representative stated.

With the ongoing outbreak in Cambodia, the province suggested the Ministry of Health establishes a field hospital for Covid-19 treatment in the beach town of Ha Tien, Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper reported.

In response to the proposal, Nguyen Trong Khoa, deputy head of the Medical Examination and Treatment Management Department under the Ministry of Health, told the province to set up field hospitals using schools, dormitories or sports centers.

Cambodia imposed a coronavirus lockdown on its capital Phnom Penh on Thursday in a bid to contain a spike in cases. The country recorded 291 new infections on Saturday, pushing its tally to 5,771.

In a voice message posted on his official Facebook page, Prime Minister Hun Sen warned Cambodia was on the brink of “death valley” and urged people to work together to avoid calamity.

Heath Minister Nguyen Thanh Long told an online meeting Friday the border area with Cambodia, including Mekong Delta provinces, are now “major hotspots” at high risk of possible Covid-19 outbreaks.

Vietnam’s border with Cambodia spans 1,137 kilometers, including the four Mekong Delta provinces An Giang, Dong Thap, Kien Giang and Long An. Other Vietnamese provinces bordering Cambodia are Binh Phuoc and Tay Ninh which are near Ho Chi Minh City, and Kon Tum, Gia Lai, Dak Lak, and Dak Nong in the Central Highlands.

On Tuesday, border guards in An Giang Province detected a man and woman breaking into Vietnam illegally from Cambodia.

Both later tested positive, prompting authorities to track down all those that had come into contact with the pair since they set foot in Vietnam.

By Saturday morning, it has been confirmed 12 people who had direct contact with them have tested negative.

Last month, Vietnam had suffered a spate of infections after a group of Vietnamese returned home illegally from Cambodia on a boat trip to Kien Giang’s Phu Quoc Island.

Many Vietnamese reside and do business in Cambodia, with many found infected with the novel coronavirus here over the past months.

While Vietnam has sealed its borders, there are occasional illegal entrants who evade checkpoints to avoid mandatory quarantine.

As per Health Ministry protocol, all those entering the nation from abroad must be quarantined for 14 days, during which they will be tested at least twice.

Vietnam has gone over two months without community transmissions.

China’s state-run Global Times on April 11 said the Liaoning steamed into the South China Sea, which Vietnam calls the East Sea, after completing a week of naval exercises around Taiwan. This happened after a U.S. Navy expeditionary strike group fronted by aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and amphibious assault ship USS Makin Island conducted exercises in the area a day earlier. The two flat-top warships were joined by a cruiser, destroyers and smaller amphibious ships, the CNN reported.

“The present deployment of the USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group and China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier is part of an established pattern of action-reaction by the two rivals,” said Carlyle Thayer, Emeritus Professor, University of New South Wales Canberra at the Australian Defense Force Academy.

The U.S. Navy’s Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group in the South China Sea in April 2021. Photo by U.S. Navy.

Thayer said that for many years, China has been developing what the Pentagon terms A2AD capabilities (Anti-Access Area Denial) in the first island chain stretching from Japan to the Philippines. The U.S., for its part, seeks to demonstrate to allies, security partners and other regional states that the East Sea is not an “exclusive Chinese lake.”

He said the moves are not new, the deployment of two aircraft carriers at the same time repeats the pattern witnessed last year when the U.S. deployed three Carrier Strike Groups and China dispatched the Liaoning. China has also based its second aircraft carrier Shandon at Sanya on Hainan Island.

Collin Koh Swee Lean, research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore, also said this posturing and counter posturing wasn’t new. It’s been part of the series of such developments in the East Sea and across regional waters over the recent years.

“Tensions continue to spike between China and the U.S. over the East Sea and Taiwan,” he said.

For the Americans, clearly the aim is to assert a continued hard line on China’s provocations against Taiwan and coercive activities in the East Sea, especially where it concerns the Whitsun Reef incident.

The reef is located within the territorial waters of the Grierson Reef, part of Vietnam’s Truong Sa (Spratly) Islands. The Philippines, among other countries, has recently voiced opposition to more than 200 Chinese vessels being illegally anchored at the reef. The fact that they are not catching fish despite good weather conditions makes their presence more dubious and suspicious, observers have said.

For its part, Vietnam has said it was closely monitoring the situation in order to protect and assert the nation’s sovereignty and sovereignty rights over sea areas in accordance with international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Koh sees the U.S. action as demonstrating continued security commitment towards the region, and perhaps more pertinently, to demonstrate the commitment that in the face of a growing People’s Liberation Army challenge. For the Chinese, it’s meant to signal resolve that Beijing won’t be browbeaten by the Americans. Koh noted that people have to look at this in this year’s special context, revolving around the 100th anniversary of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

“It’s important to demonstrate to the domestic audience that the Party carries political legitimacy and would safeguard China’s core interests.”

Carl Schuster, a visiting professor at the Hawaii Pacific University, said the China’s carrier was in the East Sea to complete its annual crew and strike group training program before releasing the conscripts in May. Beijing will claim it is a response to the American carrier’s exercises there. Meanwhile, the U.S. carrier strike group exercises were in response to China’s bullying in the East Sea. The U.S. Navy transiting through the Taiwan Strait and exercises south of Taiwan were to show the U.S. was backing Taiwan as well.

Peter Layton, visiting fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute in Australia, thinks that the PLA Navy is exercising its forces. Meanwhile, for the U.S., the timing is also important given that the Biden Administration has only recently gained office and so wishes to demonstrate its support both for the Philippines and for ASEAN.

The risks involved

Thayer said China’s dispatch of its aircraft carrier sends signals to a domestic audience, regional states and the U.S. that China will defend its sovereignty claims in the East Sea and is not intimidated by the U.S. Navy. At the same time, the U.S is signaling mainly to China and regional states that it remains committed to preserving security and stability in the East Sea and was likewise not intimidated by the People’s Liberation Army Navy.

However, the risk of a confrontation between the two opposing carrier groups is slight, with both sides well aware of the other side’s prowess.

“The greater risk is miscalculation about the intentions of aircraft and or helicopters launched from one of the carriers by the other side.”

According to Koh, the interactions between the American and Chinese naval forces is likely to remain professional.

However, while operating in close proximity to each other at a politically tense time, the risk of accidental or inadvertent encounters between these forces cannot be discounted.

However, Koh added, “At such times we can assume both Beijing and Washington have no stomach for a fight, despite the military posturing and counter posturing, and they’ll seek to keep these activities from hitting the conflict threshold.”

Schuster also said that the risks are minimal, though they exist. He said the forces were not operating in close proximity and both militaries are well disciplined. The U.S. and China are watching each other closely but their respective ship’s weapons are directly under each captain’s control, therefore “these are not inexperienced soldiers with rifles in their hands.”

Naval units operate in a visual range of other navies on a regular basis and no weapon moves without the captain’s knowledge.

Layton cautioned that while he saw no sinister intent this time, the exercise the Liaoning was undertaking and those of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force large air packages exercising near Taiwan in early April are the kinds of military activities that would be engaged in right before any Chinese military operation to capture the Patras Island.

He said there were clear risks seen in the Whitsun Reef incident. In a small area, there were several ships involved including the people’s armed militia, Chinese coast guard ships, nearby PLA Navy vessels and U.S forces. The main flashpoint might be the people’s armed militia who are less likely to be under direct command of the Central Military Commission. The PLA Navy and Chinese Coast Guard will be tightly controlled and unlikely to deliberately provoke U.S. forces, even though they may try and irritate U.S. ships by sailing close and maneuvering around them.

A redemptorist monastery with a typical French colonial architecture that is one of the ancient religious buildings in Da Lat.

Most of them were built during the French colonial period after the French founded the city as a resort town to get away from the humid, hot climate in the south.

Monasteries with arched windows and balconies with large glass doors are European in design, but are also in harmony with the gentle rhythm of the city.

Some monasteries are still places of prayer, while the rest have been assigned to state units for maintenance and repair or have been changed to become tourist attractions.

New life

The most typical of these is the Redemptorist monastery, which is now being used as a biological museum managed by the Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) Biological Institute.

The former monastery, built in 1952, is located in the middle of a pine forest on Tung Lam Hill, seven kilometres from Da Lat.

The building was constructed with the typical symmetrical French architecture. At the centre of the building stands a cross with the Latin inscription “Copiosa Apud Eum Redemptio”, often translated as “With Him is plentiful Redemption”.

The monastery is built of solid stone. Each wall and brick is imprinted with time and from the back of the building, you can see a panoramic view of the city.

At the time of its construction, the monastery was only the second stone Catholic building in the country after Phat Diẹm Church in the northern province of Ninh Binh.

It served as a place for Redemptorists, a Catholic congregation of missionaries, to worship and fulfill their missions.

Walking inside the monastery you can see classrooms arranged side by side along the corridors of the building.

The building consists of five floors with 120 rooms. The second floor now serves as the biology museum, which has seven display rooms and six storage rooms. Each room is divided into areas for displays of stuffed mammals, birds, reptiles, plants and others.

The collection of the museum includes 58 species of animals, including 38 rare species listed in Vietnam’s Red Book.

The former Redemptorist monastery now serves as a biology museum with seven display rooms of stuffed mammals, birds, reptiles, plants and others. VNS Photo Xuan Dang

Thanks to the beauty of the monastery, it imparts a nostalgic and mysterious feeling. It seems that at any angle or location in the monastery is a wonderful scene for a photo.

“This is my first time visiting this place. I’m very impressed with the architecture. I also took some great photos here with my family. It’s good to see that abandoned monasteries like this are maintained and used as a tourist destination,” Phuong Thanh, 21, a tourist from Nha Trang City, told Việt Nam News.

The architecture of the monastery impresses visitors. VNS Photo Xuan Dang

Hidden gem

Some old monasteries in Da Lat with significant architectural values have been repaired to change their purpose of use.

An abandoned monastery located between Tran Quang Dieu and Hung Vuong streets is one.

The dirt path leading to the monastery makes it quite a hidden gem. Located in the north of the city and covering more than seven hectares, the chapel and residential quarters of the Franciscan monastery sit on a hill about 7 kilometres from the city centre.

For years, the iconic chapel has been an inspiration for Vietnamese artists and photographers, appearing in countless works of art.

An abandoned Franciscan monastery is one of the oldest and most valuable religious buildings in Da Lat. Photo Baolamdong.vn

Le Tu, head of Lam Dong Province’s Association of Architects, said that even though the monastery is not classified as a heritage, architects appreciate it for its historic architectural value.

The monastery complex was designed by French architects Alexandre Leonard and Paul Veysseyre in the late 1930s and early 1940s, marking the onset of Benedictine missionaries from the West making their way to Vietnam.

The architectural style of the chapel has a combination of the West and East with an Eastern-style tiled roof, and windows and main door bearing the typical Western Gothic architecture.

In 1954, the missionaries left the complex in the hands of Franciscan nuns before moving to Hue in the central region to set up the Thien An Monastery.

In the following years, the nuns enlisted the help of Vietnamese architect Pham Khanh Chu to design additional classrooms behind the existing complex, known as the Viet Nu Commercial School, in 1969.

In 1979, the seven-hectare complex was handed over to the government. It was eventually abandoned for several years before becoming the campus for the HCM City University of Architecture in Da Lat.

At one point, nearly 20 families illegally occupied the chapel but were eventually moved out by local authorities.

Restoration plan

The complex is now under restoration to become a campus of the HCM City University of Architecture.

The project, co-headed by Huy Hoang Company and the university, started by the end of February.

The former ancient monastery is currently under restoration. VNS Photo Xuan Dang

A representative of HCM City University of Architecture told Tuổi Trẻ (Youth) newspaper that the university has plans to restore the site.

“We see the complex as a meaningful and valuable heritage site. Restoration costs are much more than rebuilding, but we must protect this significant landmark.”

Associate Professor Le Van Thuong, rector of the university, said the chapel area and the dorm for monks will be preserved in their original state. Damaged parts such as doors and the roof will be repaired or replaced but will be consistent with the overall structure.

“We will keep the original architecture and materials of the building as much as possible. Only damaged and deteriorated places will be replaced with new materials. The paint will be the original colours,” Thuong said.

When the work is completed, the chapel will become the university hall, while the dormitory area of ​​the monastery will remain as the residential function. The classroom area will become a lecture hall for students, Thuong said.

Ninh Viet Anh, teacher at HCM City University of Architecture, said that for works with historical architectural significance​, conservation must be carefully considered.

With conservation projects such as these, the city can keep its unique architectural features from the French colonial period and continue to be a popular tourist destination.

VNS