Vietnam's Balanced Strategy Between China And The United States

The balanced strategy is a common diplomatic strategy adopted by the small countries in the international community to seek independence and survival in the gap between the great powers.Since the treaty of Westphalia established the modern system of international relations and established the principle of state sovereignty,many small countries that have acquired the status of independent sovereign states for the first time have been thinking about how to maintain their hard-won independence in the ever-changing and inter-connected European continent.However,in the practice of international politics,whether a small country or a weak country adopts a balanced strategy is determined by its own conditions and the international political environment.Take Vietnam as an example.During the cold war,Vietnam adopted the diplomatic strategy of following the Soviet Union based on its ideology and regional political ambitions.After the collapse of the Soviet union,Vietnam,which had lost its backer,gave up its one-sided foreign policy completely,pursued all-dimensional diplomacy,and actively developed friendly relations with other countries in the world.As a small country,Vietnam is inevitably influenced by big countries in its domestic development and foreign policy making.Among them,China and the United States are the two countries that have the greatest influence on Vietnam.From the perspective of geopolitics,the United States,as a superpower with global influence,built a regional alliance system dominated by the United States in the process of competing for political dominance with the Soviet union in southeast Asia during the cold war.Therefore,the United States is a major power with traditional influence in southeast Asia.The rapid development of China after the cold war is also changing the geopolitical pattern of southeast Asia.From the economic point of view,China and the United States are both important trading partners of Vietnam.The United States is an important export market and source of technology for Vietnam,while China is the largest source of import for Vietnam.China and Vietnam are highly complementary in terms of industrial development.For Vietnam,China and the United States are both potential security threats and important partners,and China and the United States have always been in a state of both struggle and cooperation.Therefore,it is very important for Vietnam to find a suitable position between the two major countries.So-called soldier impermanence potential,water impermanence,rapidly changing international situation,China's rise and southeast Asia in the international political strategic position of rising make Vietnam international environment changing,Vietnam's foreign strategy in the balancing strategy under the premise of the general direction of the same has been adjusted,so from the perspective of the balanced strategy,with the development of the relations between the United States and Vietnam can well understood Vietnam diplomatic strategy of the development of logic,but also to China to counter the trend of the more beautiful cooperation continued to deepen,the evaluation of its national interests in China and in the influence on the development of the relationship.