A Study On The Trilateral Interactions Among China, The United States And Vietnam In The Early21^st Century

This Dissertation will study on the interactions among three nationstate actors-China,the U.S.and Viet Nam in the international relations.Generally,TheSino-Vietnamese bilateral relations has been developed both rapidly and broadly sincenormalization in the year of1991.Nevertheless,in virtue of lacking ofmutual-confidence and overlapping claims over the South China Sea,There remains acertain of uncertainty in the future Sino-Vietnamese relations.Influenced somewhat bythe “Zero-sum”thought and divergent national interests with China,Viet Nam and theU.S.are practicing “hedgeing”strategy to cope with so-called“China threat”.Viet Nam“lures” U.S.to counterbalance China’s influence in its illegal fight for the South ChinaSea.With the China’s rise,U.S.practises a dual strategy of “Engagement”and“Containment”,It entices Vietnam to hedge against China’s soft power expansiontoward the Southeast Asia.This kind of situation of malignant trilateral interactions among China,U.S.andVietnam will be harmful to each respective party.This is the real context why I chooseand pick this topic as my domain of study.The Chinese government has long being declared to follow the policy of“peaceful rise”in its future national development.It is imperative that China shape akind of ‘win-win-win’style of interactions among these three nation states and It is inthe interest of China’s long-term strategy of “Building a peaceful internationalsituation for economic development and social prosperity”.This dissertation willfocus the change of patter of interaction between Viet Nam and U.S.,it will also sumup the complete strategic partnership between China and Vietnam.A review of recentSino-American relationship is also necessary concerning the paper.The paper will refer to basic international theories to analyze the related issuesemerging in the three bilateral and one trilateral interactions instead of interpolatingthese theories.As to the frame of this pater,It is divided into six parts--Introduction to the paperand other five chapters,the5thchapter is the main part of the whole paper.The1th chapter discusses the geopolitical importance of Viet Nam and its foreign policychanges since the innovation and opening to the outside world,as well as itsinteractions with three regional powers,i.e.Russia,Japan and India.The2thchaptercenters on the cooperation between China and Vietnam since normalization,it alsoanalyzes the invariables to hamper Sino-Vietnamese interactios since the building ofcomplete bilateral strategic Sino-Vietnamese partnership.The3thchapter will makeretrospections on the change of the interaction pattern between the U.S.and VN whichcharacterizes transformation from confrontation to co-operation.The relatons betweenU.S.and VN are confronted with a combination of historic and present challenges,andthe increasing warming-up of bilateral relations have the calculus over Chineseelement.The4thchapter reviews the dispute between China and Viet Nam since2007,and the tension in the South China Sea after the assertive measures taken by therespective claimants.This chapter also make an analysis of the motives and strategiesof the U.S.after its hign-profile intervention into the region.The last Chapter is todetail on the negative effects of the Zero-sum game among three parties,the authorholds that it’s neccessary to shape a benign pattern of interactions among threeparties.Lastly the paper will put forward norms and institutions,preconditions to formthis kind of interaction.