Bayer Vietnam Ltd. has provoked a public outcry after the Germany-based company circulated internal documents containing China’s map with the illegal nine-dash line.

CEO of Bayer Vietnam disseminated illegal documents. Source: Local media

On April 27, Managing Director of Bayer Vietnam Lynette Moey Yu Lin sent the Covid-19 – Lessons from China document with an attached file containing the Chinese map with the nine-dash line to the company’s staff.

Under the firm’s regulations, the documents will be forwarded within its divisions. Bayer Vietnam now has around 700 employees.

The move has immediately sparked wrath among Vietnam netizens who called for dismissal of Lynette Moey Yu Lin, the company’s official apology, and boycott of Bayer products.

An uproar has seen among Facebookers, users of different forums, (including otofun.net – one of the most popular forums in Vietnam), and readers on news portals after the incident was reported by dozens of media outlets including the most-read ones like VTC, VnExpress, Zingnews, Enternews, VOH, Phunuonline, among others.

“We are Vietnamese people and always put national pride first and foremost regardless of which country the company we work for is based. We do not want any individual or organization to take advantage of our trust to disseminate illegal contents that harm our country, especially at a time when escalation of tensions in the South China Sea continues,” local media cited a Bayer staff.

Lynette Moey Yu Lin, Bayer Vietnam's managing director

According to local media, Lynette Moey Yu Lin is of Malaysian nationality and Chinese origin.

After the dissemination of the document, Bayer Vietnam said it was an “accident."

Facebook user Do Cao Bao rejected the company’s excuse, and raised three questions: (1) Why did Lynette Moey Yu Lin disseminate a document on China's experience in fighting Covid-19 while she is living and working in Vietnam, an exemplary country in the fight against the pandemic? (2) Despite working for a German-invested company, Lynette Moey Yu Lin is a person of Chinese origin and (3) Why did Bayer Vietnam send documents on the pandemic prevention at a time when Vietnam has done a great job in containing the virus?

“We do not accept a managing director of a foreign-invested enterprise working in Vietnam “accidentally” disseminate documents with an illegal nine-dash line map,” the facebooker said.

“Everyone must be aware that any multinational company that wants to operate in a country must comply with the country’s law and respect its customs and habits.”

“For those reasons, I demand Bayer Group immediately dismiss Yu Lin and apologize to Vietnamese people and clients,” he emphasized.

Nine-dash line or U-shaped line is considered China’s endless malice in occupying the South China Sea. In May 2009, China continued to show its ambition to monopolize the sea by submitting to the United Nations a “nine-dash line” map. In the map, China claimed sovereignty over two million square kilometers of sea and 13 square kilometers of land on the sea, including Vietnam’s Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) Islands, and Scarborough shoal.

Bayer Vietnam Ltd., which belongs to the Bayer Group, has operated in Vietnam since 1994 with two modern factory facilities in the southern provinces of Dong Nai and Binh Duong and two branch offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.