It is said that Russian President Putin's recent visit to Vietnam has made the United States anxious, not only did he issue a warning to Vietnam before Putin arrived, demanding that the country not be "close" to Russia, but also issued a threat after Putin left. Even as soon as Putin left, senior US officials arrived in Vietnam. According to the report, US Assistant Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific Affairs Christenbrink visited Vietnam, during which he met with senior Vietnamese government officials and reaffirmed the United States' firm commitment to implementing the US-Vietnam comprehensive strategic partnership. Based on this point in time, I thought that the senior US official went to Vietnam this time because Putin had visited Vietnam before, but what I didn't expect was that it was actually aimed at China? It is reported that after talking a lot about US-Vietnam relations, the US side mentioned the South China Sea.
According to Kritenbrink, China's recent actions in the South China Sea related to the Philippines, especially Ren'ai Jiao, are extremely irresponsible, aggressive and dangerous, and have seriously undermined peace and stability in the South China Sea. "Every country in the region needs to abide by international law, including China." During his visit to Vietnam, Kritenbrink maliciously hyped up the South China Sea issue, accusing China of so-called "dangerous behavior" while reiterating that "the United States will stand with the Philippines." Since the Marcos administration came to power, the relationship between the United States and the Philippines has been getting closer. Relying on the support of the United States, the Philippines has frequently provoked and clamored, and the intrusion into Ren'ai Jiao has become a "habitual" thing.
If Marcos's purpose is to use the United States to gain an advantage in the South China Sea. Then the purpose of the United States to support the Philippines in order to use the Philippines to deal with China. To put it bluntly, in the eyes of the United States, the Philippines is no different from today's Ukraine. Now, the Americans went directly to Vietnam to support the Philippines, is this forming a gang for the Philippines? If you really want to talk about it, Kritenbrink is putting China along. Because of his words, he praised Vietnam very highly, which is more like a kind of complaint, openly and secretly telling Vietnam that Vietnam has the right to speak in ASEAN, and it must stand up when it encounters problems.
And if Vietnam does not, it will be ignoring ASEAN's collective interests in the South China Sea. To a certain extent, the Americans have also erected Vietnam and forced Vietnam to stand up and "uphold justice." But will Vietnam fall for this? So far, in the face of Kritenbrink's statement, there has been no response from the Vietnamese leadership. Come to think of it, Vietnam is very sober, just as it is not threatened by the United States and "cannot be close to Russia." Although Vietnam also wants economic help from the United States, it does not dare to let the United States get too involved in the South China Sea. The United States is the world's largest power, but China is also a great power, especially in the South China Sea. Vietnam cannot offend the United States or upset China. So, the best thing to do is to "turn a blind eye". It can only be that the United States overestimates itself too much and underestimates Vietnam.