Xi Jinping Urges Vietnam to Cooperate with China Against U.S. Influence

Chinese dictator Xi Jinping paid a visit to Vietnam on Tuesday, meeting with Vietnamese Communist Party leader Nguyen Phu Trong to counter U.S. influence in the region.

Xi told Vietnamese officials they should partner with China to resist foreign powers that “attempt to mess up the Asia-Pacific.”

“Asia’s future is in the hands of no one but Asians,” Xi said in an op-ed published by a Vietnamese newspaper on Tuesday.

Vietnam upgraded its diplomatic relationship with the United States to a “comprehensive strategic partnership” in September during a visit by President Joe Biden, theoretically elevating the U.S. to the same diplomatic status as China.

The upgrade was intended to signify that Vietnam would maintain a closer “dialogue” with the U.S. State Department, increase trade, collaborate more closely on scientific and technological research, and work together on mutual security objectives, particularly terrorism and international crime.

Vietnam was eager to show the U.S. it had made progress toward a more liberalized market economy and signaled its support for freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. China is the primary threat to freedom of navigation.

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The White House said Vietnam was willing to participate more substantially in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF), the U.S.-led Western effort to compete with China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Combined with Vietnam taking the American side on free navigation in the South China Sea, where China and Vietnam have significant territorial disputes, this signaled Vietnam was drifting further into the Western orbit than Beijing could tolerate.

Xi on Tuesday said Vietnam is a top “diplomatic priority” for China. He touted his vision of a “shared future” for Vietnam and China’s other allies in Southeast Asia and Africa.

Xi told Trong that China wants to “step up multilateral cooperation with Vietnam” and “increase the voice and influence of developing countries in international affairs.”

Trong responded that Hanoi views closer reactions with China as a “top priority and a strategic choice.” Xi, Trong, and various Vietnamese officials made statements suggesting that Hanoi’s territorial disputes with Beijing in the South China Sea could be smoothed out.

As a gesture in that direction, China and Vietnam agreed to set up a hotline for resolving “unexpected incidents arising from fisheries activities at sea,” a delicate reference to China’s habit of blasting Vietnamese fishermen with water cannons when they stray into territory illegally claimed by China.

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A joint statement issued by Vietnam and China declared Xi’s visit a “historic landmark in bilateral ties” that would promote “peace and stability and development in the region and the world.” 

Vietnam and China signed 36 cooperation agreements during Xi’s visit, crucially including deals for railroad and highway development, which would seem like a rebuke to Washington’s effort to coax Hanoi out of the BRI.

However, Vietnam came up short of applying for membership in Xi’s “Community of Common Destiny,” the formal name of the Chinese dictator’s strategic vision for Southeast Asia. Vietnam expressed polite support for the ideals of the Community of Common Destiny but did not refer to it by name or declare membership.

China’s state-run Global Times on Monday urged Vietnam to view Xi’s visit as a renewal of a special diplomatic and strategic relationship that Vietnam could not enjoy with any Western nation since the two nations share land and sea borders, compatible cultures, and Communist ideology.

The Global Times also hinted that Xi’s visit could open a floodgate of lucrative Chinese tourism for the Vietnamese if they play their cards right since Xi’s subjects are often eager to emulate his behavior.

The Chinese paper sneered at the “distorted analysis” of American media outlets that said Xi was frantically trying to play diplomatic catch-up after Biden’s visit in September. This analysis supposedly ignores the “frequent contacts between China and Vietnam” during recent years, even as their relationship frayed over territorial disputes.

“China has been seriously developing ties with Vietnam for the long term, unlike the U.S., which aims to use Hanoi to gain its selfish profits when needed and sets it aside when not,” Fudan University professor Shen Yi harrumphed to the Global Times.

Another Global Times editorial on Tuesday dismissed Biden’s visit to Vietnam as a mere sideshow, while Xi’s much-anticipated trip was the main event. The Global Times cited the “frequency of high-level visits to China by Vietnamese leaders” as evidence that Washington can never develop the kind of relationship that Hanoi enjoys with Beijing.

The Global Times editors hyperventilated about the folly of Americans who misinterpreted a few polite gestures by the Vietnamese as signs that Vietnam was tilting away from China to the United States:

From the period of the U.S. “rebalancing to the Asia-Pacific” to the subsequent introduction and implementation of the “Indo-Pacific Strategy” aimed at containing and suppressing China, the China-Vietnam relationship has received “special attention.” Some individuals particularly enjoy creating stories about China-Vietnam relations. Vietnam’s normal interactions with other countries, especially the U.S. and its allies, are interpreted by them as signs of “joining the U.S. system.” According to their logic, China and Vietnam are unlikely to maintain good relations, and Vietnam is seen as one of China’s neighboring countries most likely to be drawn into the “U.S. camp.” The significant increase in U.S. efforts to woo Vietnam may be based on this assessment. This approach is not only malicious toward China but also highly disrespectful to Vietnam. However, facts have proven that this was a misjudgment or, one might say, a Western imagination. Vietnam’s diplomacy and its relationship with China have not followed this line of thinking.

This was followed by about a thousand words of the Global Times editors insisting that Vietnam elevating the U.S. to the same diplomatic level as China was a purely symbolic move that said nothing substantial about how Hanoi views Beijing.

“China and Vietnam are good neighbors and friends, connected by mountains and rivers. They are also good comrades and partners, sharing the same aspirations and destiny,” the Global Times shrieked, claiming that Xi’s visit to Hanoi instantly erased whatever diplomatic gains Biden thought he was making in September.

The BBC on Monday suggested that behind all of the high-level diplomatic theatrics, Vietnam is really still running its time-honored “bamboo diplomacy” strategy of playing the U.S. and China against each other, cheerfully raking in the proceeds of a perpetual bidding war for its affections.

The BBC thought Vietnam would probably sign up for Xi’s “Community of Common Destiny” just to tip the scales a bit toward China and prod the U.S. to sweeten its counter-offer. Vietnam did not actually take that step during Xi’s visit, which could throw some cold water on the Global Times’ frantic insistence that America’s hopes and dreams for Vietnam were shattered the moment Xi stepped off his plane.

Another warning sign for China was that Vietnamese social media was not exactly bubbling with affection for Xi during his visit. The government in Hanoi is willing to set aside its disputes with China while it runs its bamboo diplomacy game, but the Vietnamese public is much less forgiving:

“We only want peace, so President Xi please don’t come,” wrote one Vietnamese Facebook user. “If Xi Jinping removes the nine-dash line, the two countries can become brothers immediately,” wrote another, referring to China’s expansive claim to nearly all of the South China Sea.

Public sentiment in Vietnam can be more fiercely anti-Chinese than anywhere else in South East Asia. It is stirred by the proud nationalism of a country which won its independence after defeating both the French and the Americans, and by historic fear of its giant northern neighbor. This sentiment has always required careful handling by Vietnam’s communist leaders.

In recent years there have been occasional anti-Chinese protests. There were even riots in 2014 which killed several people and destroyed dozens of foreign-owned factories, after China positioned an oil rig in what Vietnam considers its own territorial waters. A few years ago shops began appearing in Hanoi promising to sell only Vietnamese-made goods, and none from China.

The BBC noted that Vietnam has been reluctant to fully buy into the BRI because the public might resent China’s “economic footprint” growing much larger than it already is. That footprint remains gigantic despite Western corporations turning to Vietnam as a “de-risking” alternative to China in the post-pandemic era.