Is Vietnam, once regarded as a vassal state by China's great powers, and colonized by Western powers and military intervention by the United States in many historical periods, a pearl that has been turned over the map of Southeast Asia, or a pitiful seed that has wavered in the cracks of power?
Vietnam's attitude toward China and toward the United States is full of contradictions, and it seems to imply a strong national pride and desire for expansion, but it has to be sometimes pro-China and sometimes pro-American under the consideration of practical interests, and it is in a dilemma. Does this ambivalence and behavioral logic of Vietnam stem from its reluctance as a small country to its great power ambitions? How will it seek its own way out in the context of the confrontation between China and the United States? These confusions deserve to be carefully explored.
The roots of Vietnam's great power ambitions: the frontier independence of Chinese civilization
The northern region of Vietnam has always been a part of Chinese civilization. As early as the Western Han Dynasty, the Central Plains Dynasty had incorporated this region into its territory. Although there were occasional secessions, they were always ruled by the central power. It was not until the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period that northern Vietnam gradually got rid of the control of the Central Plains Dynasty and began to move towards the road of self-reliance.
In 939, the Southern Han regime in northern Vietnam was destroyed, and Li Gongman established the Great Viet Kingdom in the Quang Nam region. This marks the official beginning of Vietnam's path to independence. As a frontier region under the long-term rule of the Central Plains Dynasty, Vietnam has clearly inherited the profound heritage of Chinese culture and has always regarded itself as the legitimate successor of Chinese civilization.
Although the core of the Central Plains has long been replaced by the emerging national regimes of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, in the eyes of Vietnam, they are the logical heirs to Chinese orthodoxy. After that, the Vietnamese kings began to follow the example of the Central Plains Dynasty and implement a highly centralized system in their own country. At the same time, there were also ambitions for military expansion and territorial expansion.
In order to increase the strategic depth of the Central Plains Dynasty, Vietnam expanded to the south, successively annexing and occupying vast lands along the Mekong Delta; In order to curb the expansion of Siam and Burma, Vietnam repeatedly sent troops to invade the neighboring countries of Laos and Cambodia. After a long period of war and annexation, Vietnam finally established itself as a great power on the Indochina Peninsula.
At the same time, Vietnam still paid tribute to the Central Plains Dynasty in the north, and was still formally a vassal state of the Chinese Dynasty. However, within the Indochina Peninsula, it has its own Little China mentality, and strives to establish its own vassal system in neighboring countries, becoming the "little dragon head" of the Indochina Peninsula.
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, in the face of the decline of the Central Plains Dynasty, Vietnam even played the slogan of the so-called "Shenzhou Lu Shen", arrogant and arrogant, claiming that it was the successor of the orthodox inheritance of Chinese civilization. This distorted great-power mentality continued until the 19th century before the French invasion. In fact, this is a complete departure from Vietnam's original status as a vassal state of the Chinese dynasty.
We can see that although North Vietnam was once a frontier area of Chinese civilization, it has continuously strengthened its great power mentality with the process of independence. The entrenchment of Chinese civilization has allowed Vietnam to see itself as the heir to Chinese orthodoxy; After the independence of the state, it gradually embarked on the old road of expanding its territory and establishing a tributary system. This kind of national self-esteem, which originates from the Chinese civilization but deviates from the origin of the Chinese civilization, is an important source of Vietnam's ambivalence towards China.
Survival in the Colonial Period: French Invasion and Sino-American Intervention
In the mid-19th century, the French began a colonial invasion of Vietnam. In 1858, French troops landed in Da Nang, and in the following decades, the French occupied all parts of Vietnam, officially making Vietnam part of the "French Indochina Federation" in 1887.
As a colonizer, France pursued a brutal policy of colonial rule in Vietnam. The Vietnamese people have been deprived of their basic human rights and subjected to all kinds of exploitation and oppression. The French colonizers also plundered Vietnam's resources on a large scale, triggering a series of anti-colonial uprisings.
But the French colonizers did not stop there, and in 1933 they recklessly forcibly occupied the Spratly Islands. This is undoubtedly a flagrant violation of China's territorial sovereignty. The Chinese government has protested on several occasions, but it has been difficult to do so because of its weak national strength.
In 1940, France was occupied by the German Nazis, and French Indochina became a puppet regime of Japan. The French authorities had to surrender to Japan and sell their rights and interests in the Spratly Islands. In the process, the despicable and shameless attitude of the French colonists was exposed.
After the end of World War II, France's attempt to regain control of the Indochina region erupted into a long-term conflict with the Vietnamese nationalist movement. At this time, the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party was in place, and although the Nationalist government in Nanking had been stationed in northern Vietnam for a while, it quickly withdrew, leaving an opportunity for the French to regain their hands on Vietnam.
China's support for the Vietnamese national liberation movement
The most famous leader of the Vietnamese national liberation movement was Ho Chi Minh. Under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was officially proclaimed in September 1945, marking a phased victory in the cause of Vietnam's national independence.
But the French colonizers did not give up, and the Franco-Vietnamese War broke out, which lasted for nearly a decade. During this war, the People's Republic of China has been vigorously supporting Vietnam diplomatically and militarily, providing it with a large amount of material and arms assistance.
In 1954, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam won the final victory in the Franco-Vietnamese War. Subsequently, at the Geneva Conference, Vietnam was temporarily divided into two regimes, the North led by Ho Chi Minh and the anti-communist South Vietnamese regime in the South.
Laos and Cambodia also became republics at that time. On the surface, Vietnam seemed to have won a phased victory in the anti-colonial war, but in fact, it was divided in two, and the confrontation between the north and the south was beginning to take shape.
After the outbreak of the Civil War in Vietnam, the North Vietnamese regime received strong support from China and the Soviet Union, while South Vietnam received military assistance from the United States, and the two sides engaged in a protracted war in Vietnam.
In this war, American GIs invaded Vietnam in a steady stream, using weapons of mass destruction, causing millions of Vietnamese civilian casualties. North Vietnam, with the support of China and the Soviet Union, encountered many large-scale battles with American forces.
In 1975, the North Vietnamese army finally conquered Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, and achieved the reunification of Vietnam. However, this is just the beginning. Vietnam bounced together after the war in an attempt to regain control of Cambodia and Laos, and a new protracted civil war broke out.
China was deeply disturbed by Vietnam's expansionist behavior and issued a stern warning to the Vietnamese army. But the warnings did not work, and Vietnamese troops invading Cambodia shelled the Chinese border area, which led directly to the outbreak of the Sino-Vietnamese War in 1979.
For the next decade, China and Vietnam remained in a state of cold war along the border, with occasional exchanges of fire between soldiers on both sides, resulting in numerous casualties. It was not until 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, that Vietnam had to seek reconciliation.
Although Vietnam won a phased victory in the struggle during the colonial period, it was also caught in the whirlpool of the wrestling between the two superpowers, China and the United States, and was in a dilemma. It has had to survive in the cracks of various forces, and has repeatedly encountered twists and turns on the road to pursuing the dream of becoming a great power. This historical experience is precisely the root cause of his troubled attitude toward China and the United States today.
Expansionist ambitions and practical setbacks after the reunification of Vietnam
On April 30, 1975, the Vietnam War finally ended, and the North Vietnamese army conquered Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, and realized the great cause of Vietnamese reunification. However, Vietnam's expansionist ambitions did not stop there.
Immediately after the reunification of Vietnam, the North Vietnamese leaders demonstrated their hard-line expansionist attitude. They first set their sights on the Sino-Vietnamese border area and spared no effort to create trouble in this small area and provoke China.
In December 1978, the Vietnamese army brutally drove out Chinese nationals in the border areas of Guangxi, causing a large number of civilian casualties. In February 1979, the Vietnamese army openly launched an artillery attack on China's Yunnan region, which directly triggered the outbreak of the Sino-Vietnamese War.
Although the Chinese People's Liberation Army eventually forced the Vietnamese army to retreat to the border, tensions on the Sino-Vietnamese border did not ease. The two armies exchanged fire from time to time over the next 10 years. It was not until 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, that Vietnam had to temporarily slow down its expansion in Southeast Asia.
After the reunification of the country, Vietnam's ambitions for expansion did not stop there. At the end of 1978, the Vietnamese army began a military offensive against Laos and Cambodia in an attempt to bring them back into their sphere of influence.
Laos fell relatively quickly. But Cambodia was met with stubborn resistance from the snipers and the Khmer Rouge. After a decade-long war of attrition, Vietnam eventually captured the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, but the war was so costly that it was unable to achieve long-term effective control over Cambodia like the colonizers.
Eventually, under pressure from the United Nations and ASEAN countries, Vietnam began withdrawing its troops from Cambodia in 1989. By 1991, Vietnamese troops had completely withdrawn from Cambodia. During this period, Vietnam not only spent a lot of military manpower, but also suffered widespread condemnation and sanctions from the international community.
While Vietnam has completed national reunification, it has also brought hidden dangers to some other deep-seated contradictions. The most important issue is the issue of the division between the North and the South.
During the Vietnam War, South Vietnam had long been supported by the United States, and its military-political and cultural environment was in stark contrast to that of North Vietnam. Even after the end of the war, North Vietnam was not able to fully assimilate South Vietnam. On the contrary, the influence of South Vietnamese culture is gradually spreading to the north.
In addition, the social trauma caused by the Vietnam War was extremely severe. The exodus of large numbers of South Vietnamese exiles has created an ongoing humanitarian crisis in Vietnam. As conquerors of the war, the North Vietnamese authorities treated South Vietnamese civilians and prisoners with extreme cruelty, exacerbating the estrangement between the two sides.
It was not until the 90s of the last century that Vietnam began to liberalize its measures and gradually integrate the North and the South. However, it is difficult to cure the sequelae such as the loss of people's morale and the withering of people's livelihood in the short term. Discontent with the northern authorities persisted in the South Vietnamese region, which undoubtedly exacerbated the country's internal divisions.
After the war, Vietnam was ambitious, almost desperately launching a frenzied expansion into Laos and Cambodia. However, it ended up suffering from a number of setbacks in reality. Not only could they not control their neighbors, but they were traumatized by the war. From the Sino-Vietnamese border conflict to the attrition of the civil war, and then to the hidden danger of division between the north and the south, all these have greatly depleted and weakened Vietnam's national strength. This practical lesson is destined to influence Vietnam's future conduct in the Asia-Pacific region.
The dilemma between China and the United States in modern Vietnam
Since the beginning of the 20th century, Vietnam's relations with China have been tense. Although the two countries reached a rapprochement in 1991 over the Sino-Vietnamese War, the dispute over sovereignty over islands in the South China Sea has led to new escalating tensions.
In 2007, Vietnam built a permanent military facility on the Spratly Islands, which was strongly protested by China. In 2011, Vietnam signed a cooperation agreement with India to explore oil and gas fields in the South China Sea, again sparking China's displeasure.
In May 2014, China clashed with Vietnamese vessels for oil and gas exploration in waters off the Spratly Islands. Subsequently, serious anti-China demonstrations broke out among Vietnamese people in many places, and a number of Chinese-funded enterprises were sabotaged and attacked. This incident directly led to a sharp decline in the relationship between the two sides.
In 2019, Vietnam and China briefly engaged in a maritime standoff off the Paracel Islands. In 2020, Vietnam also drove Chinese fishermen out of the Paracel Islands on a large scale. The contradictions between the two sides on the South China Sea issue have always existed, and they do not give in to each other.
In addition to the South China Sea disputes, Vietnam is also deeply concerned about the exodus of people from China and the issue of border residents. In 2009, Vietnam experienced a large-scale expulsion of Chinese, and the two sides almost fell into another crisis of military conflict.
It is not difficult to see that even after the reconciliation, Vietnam still has considerable vigilance and precautions against China. The South China Sea dispute and population issues have always been the crux of Vietnam's relations with China.
During the period of tension with China, Vietnam has moved closer to the United States for balance. In 1995, Vietnam formally re-established diplomatic relations with the United States. In 2007, Viet Nam joined the WTO. Since the 90s of the last century, Vietnam has accelerated the reform of opening up its market, attracting a large number of American companies to invest in the region.
In 2012, Vietnam agreed to provide supply and repair services for U.S. warships, ostensibly as a substantial breakthrough in the U.S. so-called "pivot to the Asia-Pacific" policy. In 2017, Vietnam approved the U.S. military to set up a permanent storage and repair facility for supplies at its landing port in Cam Ranh Bay.
In 2020, after the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, Vietnam received a large amount of anti-epidemic assistance donated by the United States. In addition, Vietnam has cooperated with the United States on the South China Sea issue and supported the United States' "freedom of navigation" operations against China.
At the same time, however, Vietnam's trade with China is also rising. China is Vietnam's largest trading partner, and the two sides have close economic ties. Coupled with the geographical proximity and frequent population exchanges, it is undoubtedly a great challenge for Vietnam to cut off relations with China.
As a result, we see that Vietnam's U.S.-China policy has been hovering back and forth in recent years. Although Vietnam has overlapping interests with the United States on the South China Sea issue, it has also tried to avoid further deterioration of relations with China by becoming overly pro-American. This delicate stance of trying to survive in the cracks has undoubtedly cast a shadow over Vietnam's future development prospects.
Vietnam's current policy choices in the Asia-Pacific region
In recent years, Vietnam's foreign policy in the Asia-Pacific region can be summed up as "walking on many legs". On the one hand, it strives to win over the United States, Japan, India and other countries to confront China; On the other hand, it has also made efforts to maintain economic and trade cooperation with China.
Within ASEAN, Vietnam plays an important role in the alliance's anti-China forces, supports the internationalization of the South China Sea issue, and calls on ASEAN countries to unite against China. At the same time, Vietnam has also led some of the hotspot negotiations between ASEAN and China.
Among regional institutions, Vietnam has tried to expand its voice and influence in Asia-Pacific affairs by joining and leading organizations such as ARF and EAS. But it has also been accused of being behind attempts to isolate and contain China in these institutions.
Militarily, in addition to strengthening its alliance with the United States and Japan, Vietnam has also actively purchased a large number of advanced weapons and equipment from Russia, Israel, and other countries, apparently expressing a high degree of vigilance against China's military outward movement in the South China Sea.
Although Vietnam has shown a tortuous strategy of walking on multiple legs in its Asia-Pacific regional diplomacy, its China policy has always been its biggest problem and challenge. After all, China is not only Vietnam's largest neighbor, but also its largest economic and trade partner.
Between 2000 and 2019, bilateral trade between China and Vietnam soared from US$3.2 billion to US$127.5 billion, and the economic ties between the two countries are inextricably linked. China is Vietnam's largest trading partner and source of investment, and a large number of labor-intensive industries have moved to Vietnam.
At the same time, the Chinese and Vietnamese governments have also maintained a good working dialogue mechanism on land and sea border issues and the management of border residents. Every year, millions of Chinese citizens travel to Vietnam to visit relatives and friends.
However, the territorial dispute in the South China Sea is like a permanent obstruction, restricting the further development of bilateral relations. Vietnam is reluctant to bow to China in the South China Sea, fearing that it will be seen as a sign of weakness and lose the trust of its neighbors.
At the same time, Vietnam is also afraid that if it is too pro-China, it will be pinned down and isolated by other countries. This is undoubtedly a great challenge to Vietnam's strategic vision of playing the role of a balancer in the Asia-Pacific region.
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On the whole, although Vietnam has shown flexibility and pragmatism in regional diplomacy, it has found itself in a dilemma in its China policy. Maintain basic friendly relations with China, or heed the call of the United States and other countries to confront China? This will undoubtedly be a major choice for Vietnam's future direction.