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WALL STREET JOURNAL
Vietnam Party Chief Balances Ties Between U.S., China Wary of Beijing’s buildup, Nguyen Phu Trong says U.S. is force of stability in Asia Pacific
By James Hookway
HANOI—Vietnam’s top Communist Party leader travels to Washington to meet President Obama next week with a prickly question to resolve—how close should his country to get to the U.S.? The question has troubled Nguyen Phu Trong, the party’s general secretary, for years, people who have met him say. Stronger ties with the U.S. would likely anger China, Vietnam’s big neighbor to the north. It might also alienate hard-liners in Vietnam’s Politburo. But with Beijing growing more aggressive in its territorial claims to the South China Sea, close observers are concluding that Mr. Trong has little choice but to throw the full weight of Vietnam’s Communist Party behind a stronger alliance with the U.S. to challenge China’s tightening grip on the region. “The fact that it is Mr. Trong, the guardian of party ideology, who is going to the U.S. indicates that Vietnam is undergoing a strategic rebalancing,” said Jonathan London, a professor at the City University of Hong Kong. Mr. Trong’s July 7-9 visit is ostensibly to mark the 20th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic ties with the U.S. in 1995, about two decades after the end of the Vietnam War. That breakthrough and the introduction of a bilateral trade agreement a few years later are regarded as seminal events in Vietnam. In brief remarks to a group of foreign journalists Friday, Mr. Trong said he hoped that his visit to the U.S. will build on the progress so that “we can leave the past behind and move forward.” The U.S. places a premium on trade, too; former President Bill Clinton is currently in Vietnam to mark the occasion, while Vietnam is among a cluster of countries working with the U.S. to create a new trade pact, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Other Vietnamese leaders have also visited the U.S. in recent years, most notably reform-minded Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. But in recent years, 71-year-old Mr. Trong has focused on maintaining fraying ties with China. It is a difficult balancing act. Vietnam’s national identity is largely tied to the idea that it isn’t China. Its independence was hard-won. Vietnamese children are taught from an early age about the exploits of patriots such as the Trung sisters, who, the story goes, led a rebellion against Chinese rule in 40 AD. At the same time, Vietnam’s economy is closely intertwined with China’s. Trade between the two countries now accounts for about $60 billion a year, which provides a significant incentive to make sure the two countries get along. It is a job that is getting harder, however. Mr. Trong traveled to Beijing in April to apply a fresh band-aid on the relationship after China last year towed an oil rig into waters claimed by both countries. The incident set off a monthslong seaborne standoff and a series of anti-Chinese riots. Analysts say the face-off also convinced some of the more hesitant apparatchiks in Vietnam’s Communist Party to open up to the U.S., much as other countries such as Myanmar and the Philippines have attempted reduce their own economic dependence on China recently. Beijing’s moves to step up construction of artificial islands in disputed parts of the South China Sea have also stoked concerns that China might use military force to advance its territorial claims. The reclamation work has also alarmed officials in the U.S. who worry about the potential impact on shipping routes. In written remarks to The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Trong said he hoped that the U.S. would continues its pivot to Asia, describing Vietnam’s former foe as a force for stability in the region. He also welcomed the U.S.’s moves in recent years to push for the peaceful settlement of territorial disputes in the South China Sea, where China, Vietnam and other countries claim all or part of the waters as their sovereign territory. “We are all aware of the strategic location of the East Sea,” Mr. Trong said, referring to waters by their Vietnamese name, and saying free navigation was a matter of interest to countries to beyond the region. He warned against the militarization of the area, and urged Washington to help maintain the status quo. “China’s aggressiveness in the maritime disputes was certainly a wake-up call for the most conservative elements of Vietnam’s political establishment,” Mr. London said. “No one wants to be seen as being willing to put Vietnam in a relationship with China that is not based on real, mutual respect.” Vietnam has begun opening up its economy further, too, partly to help it grow faster but also to attract support from major investor nations such as Japan and South Korea. Samsung Electronics Co., for instance, accounts for a fifth of all of Vietnam’s exports. And last week, Vietnam announced plans to remove a cap on foreign ownership of many companies listed on the country’s stock market. Mr. Trong said the Vietnam aims to increase the pace of change by introducing more market-based reforms and improving its infrastructure. Adam McCarty, chief economist at Mekong Economics in Hanoi, says Vietnam is attempting to make itself an important cog in the global manufacturing production chain. And while this might increase volatility as the country becomes more vulnerable to changes in demand and production cycles, “the upside is much faster development,” he said. The U.S., meanwhile, appears to recognize that Mr. Trong’s visit is an opportunity to extend its own influence and deepen the Obama administration’s pivot to the Asia Pacific region. The meeting with Mr. Obama is especially significant; normally such encounters are reserved for heads of state or government. It also follows U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s visit to Vietnam in June, where, from the Vietnamese perspective, he said many of the right things regarding free navigation of the South China Sea. A Vietnamese military band reciprocated with a rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
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