The Study On The United States’ Impacts On Sino-Vietnam Relations In The Post-Cold War Era

From1950to1990, in forty years, the relation between China and Vietnam had experiencedfrom the “comrades and brothers” to “meet on the battleground” seriously antagonistic violentchanges. The cold war ended, and the international situation changed deeply. Because of thepractical needs of reform and opening up the development of China and Vietnam and weigh thegeopolitical relationship, the two countries restored diplomatic relation in1991. Since thenormalization of bilateral relation, the relation between the two countries had rapidly recoveredand developed. In20years, the bilateral relation had been from a lower traditionalgood-neighborly and friendly level to a high level of “long-term stability, facing the future,good-neighborly friendship, comprehensive cooperation”. With the joint efforts of the twogovernments, parties and people, the relation between the two countries is showing a trend ofsteer.During the cold war, the United States launched the war in Vietnam. Vietnam and theUnited States of America had been in a long-term hostility when the war ended. After thedisintegration of the Soviet Union, Vietnam had been put into isolated and helpless situation.Because of the changes of the international situation at that time into consideration, Vietnamabandoned originally by ideology and foreign policy toward the Soviet Union “one-sided”, putforward the “wide make friend, less enemies” slogan. In1995, Vietnam established formaldiplomatic relations with the USA. After “911” incident, the United States of Americaaccelerated the return to Southeast Asia. The United States also strengthen relations withVietnam which has the strategic position. The demand of the improvement and development ofbilateral relations between the two countries is generally consistent with the development trendof the international situation. Based on the demand of its development and international strategy,Vietnam pursued the “balance of power” diplomacy policy between the two superpowers, Chinaand the USA. On one hand, the USA’s “peaceful evolution” strategy to China and Vietnamobjectively promoted the development of the political relationship between China and Vietnam,to boost the development of Sino-Vietnamese relations. On the other hand, the United States return to Southeast Asia to strengthen development cooperation with Vietnam toSino-Vietnamese relations also brings negative effect to a certain degree, especially in China andVietnam the South China Sea dispute.Studying on the triangle relationship between China, the USA and Vietnam, has theimportant reference value for Chinese government to formulate the corresponding foreignstrategy and foreign policy, and undoubtedly has the important realistic meaning for China tocreate the surrounding environment which is advantage for constructing China’s socialistmodernization.In the first part, this paper firstly reviews the relationship between China and Vietnamduring the cold war, and then introduces the history of developmental relations between Chinaand Vietnam after the cold war. After the restore rapprochement of China and Vietnam in1991,the two countries have entered a new stage of development in the fields of politics, economy,culture, science and technology cooperation relations. From the end of1991to the end of1998,this period played important role in restoring the good-neighborly and friendly relationshipbetween China and Vietnam. The good-neighborly friendship and comprehensive cooperationperiod lied from1999to the present. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between thetwo countries, China and Vietnam increase mutual understanding, mutual trust on the basis ofbuilding good-neighborly friendship and comprehensive cooperation.The second part mainly discusses the American influence on China-Vietnam relations afterthe cold war. On the one hand, the United States’ strategy of “peaceful evolution ‘to socialistcountries’” objectively promoted the relationship between China and Vietnam. On the other hand,the negative influence followed, the United States has become an important support to Vietnam’s“big country balance diplomacy”, and oppositely Vietnam has sought to equilibrium with Chinaunder the help of the United States. At the same time, the South China Sea dispute betweenChina and Vietnam escalated with the outside power of the United States.The third part analysis the reason of the United States has the capable of influencing theSino-Vietnam relations after the cold war. In the United States’ respect, the United Statesimplements strategy of “peaceful evolution ‘to socialist countries’” and spreads “American”freedom and democracy which result in strengthening political cooperation betweenChina-Vietnam and the United States to resist the strategy of “peaceful evolution” brought by western countries headed by the United States; since the new century comes, the United States ofAmerica return to Asia-Pacific, in order to expand the influence on Southeast Asia area, restrainand weaken China, as well as develop economic and trade interests, the United States need tostrengthen the cooperation with Vietnam. In order to create a peaceful diplomatic space andintegration into the international community, to get rid of the backward economic, Vietnamneeds to strengthen cooperation with the United States more than ever, at the same time Vietnamwants to seek for balance with China under the help of the United States.In the fourth part, suggestions and measures have been put forward from three aspects,which including the consolidation of political relationship between China and Vietnam,expanding the economic relationship, and the South China Sea dispute between China andVietnam, aiming to get rid of the influence of external powers and promote the development ofbilateral friendly relation.We should rationally treat the relationship between China and Vietnam, the friendlycooperation is the mainstream in Sino-Vietnam relations, the disagreements and disputes shouldnot affect the general developmental situation. The most importance is to confront with thedifficulties seriously between two countries, resolve the problems actively and safely, and get ridof the interference of external big countries so as to promote the development in depth in twocountries.