To the reader, I shall present my criticism of the OpEd from RT below that editorial. Hugh Murray
China risks losing a crucial Asian comrade
In the coming month, US President Joe Biden will visit the Southeast Asian nation of Vietnam. Vietnam, populated by 97 million people, is Asia’s second largest communist state, and its history is marred by a bloody conflict with the US, whereby Washington unleashed untold horrors upon the population in a bid to prop up a puppet state in South Vietnam.
Yet it speaks volumes about the world we live in today that this historical memory has little influence on how the two countries now view each other. Washington sees Hanoi as a critical strategic partner in its vision for the ‘Indo-Pacific’ to contain the rise of China. The US has never been above allying itself with communist states when it suits its agenda, even if it always turns on them in the long run. Be it the USSR, Deng Xiaoping’s China, or Tito’s Yugoslavia, Washington always focuses on the bigger, prevailing perceived threat first.
And now, it’s China’s turn. Despite both being communist countries, and despite the shared revolutionary history of Mao having supported Ho Chi Minh’s quest to reunify the country, Vietnam (as a general rule) does not like China. The reasons are not ideological, but nationalistic and historical. Long ago, northern Vietnam was under the rule of Chinese dynasties, and the Vietnamese interpret their own history as part of a long struggle to stay independent of China, even as the two countries held many close cultural and economic ties.
In that sense, the world hasn’t changed much. Vietnam and China have an extensive economic and trade relationship, but Vietnam’s historical enmity towards the Chinese remains, not least because the two countries have competing and overlapping claims in the South China Sea. Hanoi, of course, names it the East Sea instead. This has led to nationalist unrest against Beijing and extreme sensitivities. Take, for example, the fact that the woke, smash hit ‘Barbie’ was banned in Vietnam just because for several seconds it shows a cartoonish, inaccurate world map which appears to reflect the ‘Nine-dash line’ of China’s claims in the disputed sea. That’s where things are at.
And who wants to exploit that rift the most? The US, of course. America not only sees Vietnam as a potential military counterweight to China, but also a potential economic partner that can replace Beijing as a manufacturing base. Vietnam, after all, is way behind China on the development ladder and has a burgeoning population of 97 million with a younger and cheaper labor force. This is why the US has gone all out to expand its diplomatic presence in Vietnam, including the construction of a $1 billion new embassy compound. Washington is sure going to great lengths to present itself as a friend to a nation it once despised and bombed into oblivion – and it’s doing so without ever having offered any sort of formal apology in the intervening years.
For the Vietnamese, this is not shameful because, from their point of view, history is on their side. That is, they effectively defeated the US in 1973, despite the great cost, and got the Americans to leave. In their relationship with the US, they may know the true nature of the country they’re dealing with, but see it as the ‘loser’ reconciling with them, and you aren’t going to feel threatened by a country you know you can defeat, are you? Of course, that doesn’t excuse the bombing, but it has allowed Vietnam’s relationship with the US to be politically justified without any lasting resentment. The US is groveling somewhat, they could say.
China has a dilemma on its hands now. Beijing must do all it can to stop Hanoi from getting closer to Washington and aspire to keep the country on a path of non-alignment and good neighborliness. China does not want Vietnam to become a strategic threat. While Vietnam, owing to the historical political correctness, will never become a formal ally of the US, there are fears it could soon upgrade the relationship to a “comprehensive strategic partnership”, which would see the two countries share common goals and interests. Biden wants to bring Vietnam into the anti-China coalition and has been ramping up partnerships and alliances against Beijing across the board.
If China is to stop this, the only answer is that Beijing must stop ramping up tensions in the South China Sea and allowing the US-controlled media to spin a narrative against it that legitimizes greater security ties between Vietnam and America. In other words, China has to start treating Vietnam like a comrade and not a subordinate neighbor, which is exactly the way Hanoi interprets their centuries-old relationship history. The battle for hearts and minds in Vietnam is on. China should theoretically have ideological and cultural advantages, as opposed to the country that dropped millions of bombs and Agent Orange on it, but geopolitics is rarely that simple.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
My comment - Yes, there was a Vietnam-American war, costly to Americans in lives and resources; much more costly in lives to the Vietnamese, and the Agent Orange and other chemicals we used had horrible results, even for mothers after the end of the war. However, after the US left in defeat, Vietnam had a war with China of a border dispute in the north between the 2 nations. Vietnam was forcesdto cede a small amount of territory to the PR China. Then the Khmer Rouge, a communist group, came to power in Cambodia. It was supported by China and indirectly by the US. (This was in the era of Kissinger and his hopes to further split Beijing from Moscow, so the US might well support China in its opposition to Vietnam). The Khmer Rouge was also murderous on a vast scale, ultimately killing about 25% of its population. (A film, The Killing Fields) might jog memories of Pol Pot's leadership.) It was also killing many Vietnamese who lived there, and the Vietnamese Communists intervened, in part to save its compatriots, but finally to overthrow the Khmer Rouge. In ending the Pol Pot 'experiment,' the Vietnamese did the world a favor. Now, in the South China Sea (or the East Sea) China is the bully of the area, harassing VN fishing boats, and those of the Philippines, trying to impose its claims for any oil or other valuables that may be found beneath these seas. And China also harasses US ships and planes. Whatever claims China might have had to the Seas were lost around 1450 when an Emperor ordered the destruction of the massive Chinese fleet that had brought many animals back from Africa. The emperor even ordered the destruction of any plans for ocean going vessels. China seems quite willing to make a vassal state of Vietnam, the Philippines. or any other state that gets in its way. Vietnam was right to ban Barbie with its Chinese inspired map of the area. America should ban the film too until it makes a change in the map inside that film. Now word comes that China is building an airstrip on the most southern of the Paracel Island, Triton. It is claimed by both China and Vietnam and Taiwan. The air base will place more pressure on Vietnam to cave into Beijing's demands. Will Pres. Biden, who has received millions of dollars from Chinese military "businesses" stand up against China? Has America ever had a President so corrupt to be paid off my our major enemy?------Hugh Murray
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