China woos Vietnam even as America does

China and Vietnam are two countries ruled by communist parties but the two have been at loggerheads for a long time. There is the border conflict in South China Sea with the two countries claiming territory in the area. But to break the ice as it were and paper over the differences, Chinese President and general secretary of the Communist Party of China Xi Jinping arrived in Hanoi for the first time in six years with a big delegation and his wife Peng Liyuan.

He was received by Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh at the airport and Xi was given a warm welcome with bouquets by Vietnamese youth. This was followed by a motorcade. Later in the day, Xi was at a ceremonial welcome hosted by the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), Nguyen Phu Trong.

Both sides affirmed the “common future” of the two countries. The Chinese word for it meant “common destiny” but the Vietnamese apparently preferred the English translation of the Chinese term, “common future”. The two sides have signed 30 memorandums of understanding (MoUs), which included one on monitoring the Tonkin Bay in South China Sea. In his speech, Xi said that for China relations are a priority in neighbourhood diplomacy.

There has been a strong push from China to strengthen economic ties between the two countries. China wants Vietnam to be part of its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and Beijing financing the Hanoi metro is part of it. The Vietnamese leaders are wary of calling it a BRI project because the people of Vietnam do not want their country to be close to China. The mistrust of Vietnamese for China is a historical one. But China is keen to forge closer ties with Vietnam because it is worried about the United States getting closer to Vietnam.

Ironically, after the bitter war between the Americans and the Vietnamese communists in the 1960s and in the first of half of the 1970s, the two countries have forged closer ties with each other from the 1990s onward, and the emphasis was on business. First, there was a reconciliation with many of the American veterans, the soldiers who fought in the Vietnam war, visiting Vietnam, Foremost among them was the Republican Senator and one-time presidential candidate John McCain. The Vietnamese communists set aside their ideological hostility towards capitalist America, and got into a pragmatic economic relationship.

So much so, that today, America is keen to increase its investments in Vietnam, and it wants to move some of its businesses from China to Vietnam. In more ways than one, America sees Vietnam as a strategic economic partner in the region because Vietnam has literally turned into an economic hub of efficiency.

Vietnam then is placed in an unenviable position where the two biggest economies in the world, America and China, are wooing the country for business and investment opportunity. China has realised the importance of Vietnam in the competition with America, and it would not want Vietnam to slip into the American camp.

But as of now, Americans seem to be enjoying an advantage. America is not eyeing Vietnamese sphere of influence in the South China Sea, and Washington is willing to support Hanoi against Beijing in the territorial claims. And it has to be said in favour of the Vietnamese that they stood up to America in the 1960s war, and they stood up to China in the 1979 war. So the Vietnamese are surefooted and they would not play second fiddle to any other country. It is not surprising then that both China and America are keen to win over Vietnam to their side.