China and Vietnam: The crown jewels of the continent

Editor's note: Chinese President Xi Jinping recently concluded a two-day state visit to Vietnam during which he engaged in crucial talks with Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong and General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee, Nguyen Phu Trong. The two nations announced a strategic agreement to build "a community with a shared future" and pledged to coordinate on global issues, manage maritime differences, and transform challenges into opportunities for bilateral cooperation. To delve into the strategic significance of President Xi's visit to Hanoi and analyze the outcomes and geopolitical impact of his exchanges with the Vietnamese leadership, CGTN's Sr. International Editor Abhishek G. Bhaya spoke with U.S.-based journalist and geopolitical analyst, Danny Haiphong. The views expressed in the video are his own and not necessarily those of CGTN.

Edited excerpts:

CGTN: What are the key takeaways that you draw from President Xi's recent Vietnam visit? And how will this shape the future course of China-Vietnam relations in the global context?

Daniel Haiphong: The key takeaways from Xi Jinping's state visit to Vietnam are many but I think the biggest one is that the visit demonstrates just all of the ways in which the U.S. has gotten this relationship wrong. We've heard for many years, especially over the last decade or so, that China and Vietnam are in an intense rivalry; that China and Vietnam are in conflict; and that increasingly Vietnam is moving toward the U.S. camp in a Cold War scenario. And this state visit has burst asunder any factual basis for that notion. It just doesn't exist.

These two countries are very complementary in their economic, diplomatic, political, and military relationships that whatever problems do exist are resolvable within the framework of their bilateral cooperation and that the relations between China and Vietnam are increasingly important as both countries are, in many ways, the crown jewels of the continent, with China being of course, the biggest and most advanced economy on the continent and indeed so of the world, with Vietnam also rapidly growing in all fields.

So, the state visit from Xi Jinping has demonstrated that these two countries are not in a Cold War with each other and that neither of them is going to play along with any scenario that pits them against each other.

CGTN: During President Xi's visit, both countries announced the goal of building a China-Vietnam community with a shared future that carries strategic significance. So how do you read this? What does this strategic significance entail and how might it influence regional and global dynamics?

Daniel Haiphong: With China and Vietnam growing closer, and with all of the attempts by the United States to promote itself as Vietnam's top partner, whether it's militarily in South China Sea disputes, interfering in the affairs of all countries in the region, but particular emphasize in China-Vietnam or China-Philippines, we can just insert the country there.

But I think what this shows, this agreement for community for a shared future between the two countries, is that there is more in common between China and Vietnam than there are disagreements; that there is more in common for these two countries to pursue in the most important realms of development. And that will ultimately determine how the region as a whole, but in particular, these two countries end up charting their own course of development and ensuring that as two of the leaders of the region, that the entire region, that ASEAN nations, ultimately find a path of prosperity, rather than the instability and chaos of the war that the United States and whoever decides to join up with it, attempt to sow all across the world.

CGTN: As you mentioned, many in the West actually saw President Xi's visit in the context of strategic competition between China and the U.S. for influence in Vietnam, and the broader Southeast Asian region. U.S. President Joe Biden visited the country earlier in September and elevated the U.S.-Vietnam ties to the status of a comprehensive strategic partnership. What is your view on that and how does Vietnam balance its relationships with these two major global powers – China and the U.S.?

Daniel Haiphong: The upgrade to a comprehensive strategic partnership for the United States with regard to Vietnam was touted in the United States as a huge shift in global dynamics that the United States was now winning some kind of competition with China over Vietnam when the reality was that China has had a comprehensive strategic partnership with Vietnam for many years – over a decade more than the United States at this point and that Vietnam itself does not view a comprehensive strategic partnership as competition.

Both China and Vietnam, especially China, are well aware of the attempts by the United States to encircle it and to use any kind of diplomatic, political, economic and military means to do so. Vietnam has its own foreign policy that is independent of U.S. diktats. It has a 'Four Nos' policy of neutrality, and opposing Cold Wars and China follows along on a very similar path.

Neither country seeks to interfere in each other's affairs, and whatever disputes and conflicts they do have on any particular issue, are the business of those two countries and that's how they want to resolve and address those issues.

So the United States touting the comprehensive strategic partnership from back in September of this year really was simply an attempt to make it look like this Cold War was indeed successful, but it has not been successful and it never will be because these two countries do not abide by such rules. That is not how these two countries do business. They want to increase stability and cooperation between the two countries so that they can both benefit.

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