On Cross-Border Marriage Between Border Residents Of China And Vietnam In Perspective Of State Governance

Vietnamese bride and its related issues have become a hot topic in public media in recent years. The international marriage between China and Vietnam thrusts into the public's eyes and has aroused wide attention in both academic circles and government departments concerned as well. As a special kind of international marriage, the cross-border marriage of border residents between China and Vietnam in Mabeng Village, Malipo County, Yunnan Province is selected as a typical case in this paper. I combined literature review with the first-hand sources from my field study, presented a panorama of the current situation of the cross-border marriage, developed an in-depth analysis of the contributing factors, ways to get married, the common marriage patterns, positive and negative social functions, and sprang some corresponding countermeasures in perspective of state governance for such longstanding problems caused by the pervasive phenomenon between Chinese and Vietnamese frontier peoples.Cross-border marriage is a widespread phenomenon in the China-Vietnam border areas. In some villages the cross-border marriage takes up by more than two thirds. On the whole, the features of the cross-border marriages in the 25 villages in the study fields include: the cross-border marriage keeping increasing and expanding inland; most of the marriages being endogamy; the social integration of the Vietnamese wife going favorable; the marriage remaining stable; the economy and education level of both husbands and wives lagging behind; household (hukou) registration of their children remaining difficult; and the sustainability of the family being incompetent. Historically, the cross-border marriage is of longstanding. The wax and wane of the Sino-Vietnam relationship exercises inevitably a great impact on the interaction of the cross-border ethnic group. The cross-border marriage, however, did not yet wipe out even during the border war between the two countries more than 3 decades ago. The daily communication of the border residents makes the cross-border marriage inevitable and thus builds up the ethnic community in the border areas.Based on the ties of geographic location, nationality and kinship, the border residents select mates and get married, and the cross-border marriage have gained high recognition among the ethnic community in the frontier areas. The convenient geographic location, nationality identity, sexual ratio imbalance and demographic make-up between China and Vietnam, marriage gradient selection, marriage squeeze, the economic development gap between China and Vietnam all contribute to the rise of the cross-border marriage these years. Views on this issue from government, researchers and border residents of Vietnam offered an "the other" perspective but echoed it.The establishment of the cross-border marriage follows the ethnic marriage customs thus is widely accepted among the ethnic community in the border areas. The traditional marriage convention regulates the marriage in the place of the state laws concerned. The inconformity of laws of China and Vietnam hikes the cost for marriage registration and impedes the border residents to get their cross-border marriage registered and lawful. Being unregistered and unlawful is the eye-striking feature of the cross-border marriage and keeps it out of the regulation and protection of the state. Under the current legal system and the border control system, the Vietnamese wives are denied Chinese citizenship due to the non-registration of their marriage. Their non-citizenship creates a number of social problems in their entry to and residence in China, application of household and nationality, and the household, education and employment of their children as well. The border control and frontier governance confronts many vexed challenges and issues accordingly, apparent or potential.As "a social fact of objectivity, publicity and universality", the nature of the cross-border marriage between border residents of China and Vietnam is the migration of Vietnamese wife by marriage. All the problems occurred are related with the entry and exit, visa, marriage registration, residence, household and nationality of the Vietnamese women. The present governance practice mainly by the local government has proved that such troublesome issues go far beyond the governance and capability of the local government, and that the state governance becomes the only one choice. The governance of the cross-border marriage should be oriented to safeguarding state security, upholding the uniformity and dignity of the state legal system, maintaining border stability and fully respecting the border residents' equal rights in marriage and family and rights to earn a living and develop. Laws and regulations needs to be enacted and amended, and matching systems regarding entry and exit, residence, marriage and household registration, Chinese nationality suitable for the frontier peoples need to be developed and perfected. Also, proper solutions to the longstanding problems left over from history needs to be taken. The governance requires a combination of the rigid legal system and humanistic care. In a long run, to speed up the economic development and social progress in the border areas remains the long-term strategy for the ultimate solution to the cross-border marriage, and it is what ought to be for the state to construct a harmonious and stable borderland.