World: Cracks in the Great Wall

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Profits & Neutrality. But the Cholon Chinese also come under increasing pressure from the Saigon government. It was a Chinese profiteer, Ta Vinh, whom Premier Nguyen Cao Ky chose to execute by firing squad last March as an example to other profiteering merchants. Ky also sent "economic police" into Cholon to hunt other profiteers. Properly penitent, the Chinese responded by closing down most of their shops and factories; for three weeks the economy of Saigon was virtually at dead stop. "The effect," says a Chinese official, "was a country-wide shortage of commodities—a shortage the military may well feel in the weeks ahead." Last week the shops were open—but only because Ky had called off his economic cops.

So far, the Chinese of Cholon have maintained their neutrality. Only 3,000 Chinese serve in the Vietnamese army (many are wealthy enough to buy their way out of the draft), and a bare handful have turned up among the Viet Cong. Whether that neutrality can be maintained under Viet Cong and government pressure is a question that plagues American officials. "We all are against Communism," says one Chinese businessman. "The Cholon people hate Communism—but they don't hate Vietnamese Communists."