Davis, O.C. Vietnamese Leaders Get Acquainted

A month after anti-communist protests overwhelmed Little Saigon, Gov. Gray Davis on Friday met with leaders of Orange County’s Vietnamese community, saying he agreed with their concerns over human rights violations in Vietnam but still supports strong trade relations.

The brief gathering was a first between a California governor and Vietnamese American leaders, who called Davis’ gesture a significant acknowledgment of their growing political clout in a state with more than 300,000 people of Vietnamese descent.

Davis, a former Vietnam veteran, also said he sympathized with Vietnamese Americans outraged when a Westminster shopkeeper displayed the Communist flag of Vietnam and a portrait of the late Communist leader Ho Chi Minh, which ignited two months of demonstrations that peaked at 15,000 participants.

“I would have been there marching with you . . . even though I recognized he had a right to display that flag,” Davis said.

While disappointed with the governor’s comment on U.S. trade with Vietnam, the dozen leaders left the meeting optimistic, and praised Davis for saying that human rights must be the top priority of U.S.-Vietnamese relations.

“It was a good start. He’s only been in office for four months and already he’s met with us,” said Do Trong Duc, president of the Vietnamese Community of Southern California based in Westminster.

Friday afternoon’s 45-minute meeting was invitation-only and held in a posh suite at the Four Seasons hotel in Newport Beach, where the governor addressed the Democratic Foundation of Orange County earlier in the day.

Davis dashed the hopes of many at the meeting when he began with a strong statement in favor of expanding trade with Vietnam.

“I do believe that if America can trade with Germany and Japan, who we were at war with in World War II, we can trade with Vietnam,” Davis said.

Still, the governor said, the United States should “do its best” to bring an end to the human rights violations and religious persecution in Vietnam.

Davis expressed a similar stance on U.S.-China relations after meeting with Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji earlier this month. While hoping to encourage trade by opening a California office in Shanghai this fall, Davis registered his concern with Zhu about human rights in China and Beijing’s trade policies.

Westminster attorney Van Thai Tran, one of the Little Saigon protest leaders at Friday’s meeting, urged Davis to use his power as governor to punish those California companies that take advantage of child labor or human rights abuses in Vietnam.

Davis did not respond to the comment. Still, Tran said he didn’t leave disappointed.

“We still have an opportunity to enlighten him,” Tran said.