China-Vietnam relations

Vietnam is different from the rest of Asia in that it does not depend on the U.S. for security and China for trade. In fact, the opposite is true.

Washington is driving a hard bargain in its ongoing trade and tariff negotiations with Hanoi.

Despite welcoming China's Xi Jinping with unprecedented pomp, Hanoi will avoid overdependence on any single great power.

The Chinese leader will this week visit Vietnam, Malaysia, and Cambodia, where he will attempt to contrast China's steady economic engagement with the volatility of the current U.S. administration.

The Chinese leader will visit Vietnam, Malaysia, and Cambodia at a time of great uncertainty about the course of U.S. policy toward the region.

The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative estimates that Hanoi has created 641 new acres of land in the disputed Spratly Islands since June.

The involvement of an extra-regional great power in a small power’s territorial disputes with China may prove counterproductive.

Despite its growing prosperity and ambition, the country still has to tread a careful line between larger regional and global powers.

If China lowers the threshold of what Vietnamese activities it deems acceptable, Vietnam will find it more difficult to maintain the balance between deferring and defying China.

The Russia-Ukraine war has rearranged the configuration of Vietnam’s web of partnerships but has not drastically changed its foreign policy approach. 

Beijing claims that the Vietnamese fishing boat was operating illegally in Chinese waters, and that its actions caused "no injuries."

The new party chief's first overseas visit reflects the divergent positions that China and the United States occupy in Vietnam's foreign policy.