China has demanded an official apology for a Chinese national who was attacked by immigration officers because he refused to pay a bribe.
Last week’s incident has already caused a storm of criticism from Chinese netizens.
The man, named Xie, was returning with his fiance and mother to China via a border crossing near Mong Cai.
After refusing to pay a ‘tip’, he was beaten up by eight uniformed border guards.
"China demands that Vietnam apologise and pay compensation to the victim, severely handle those involved and take effective measures to ensure an incident does not happen again," Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said.
Eight people had already been suspended by Vietnamese authorities, Geng said.
Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry told Reuters they are ‘clarifying’ details surrounding the incident and pledged to ‘resolve the issue.’
Vietnam’s tourism administration said China makes up almost 30% of total tourism arrivals to Vietnam.
