A Brief Analysis Of The Factors Affecting Vietnam's China Strategy After The Normalization Of Sino-Vietnamese Relations

Vietnam is a major country in South East Asia both population wise and military wise.They hold a key strategy position within the region,while being a country that had long diplomatic relationship with us historically.Along with the fact they also have the same political system since modern time,those factors make them an important neighbor to us.To Vietnam,China is many thing: we are a dominant power in the region;we are their close neighbor;we are a socialist state like them;traditionally we also have good relationship with them.Because China is the most important neighboring country to Vietnam,foreign strategy towards China hold a crucial position in their diplomatic strategy.Research aim toward an understanding of their foreign strategy towards China,therefore,are both meaningful in a theoretical sense and in practical sense.The national interest is the essence when designing one's diplomatic strategy,with geographical politics,nation's surrounding,economical interest its components.China-Vietnam relationship experienced various stages,from Vietnam Independence Movement's intimate,to the conflict after their reunification,and now,we have a comprehensive and friendly cooperative relationship that's established after the end of Cold War.From Vietnam's perspective,their adjusting of its foreign strategy towards China is influenced by various factors came from both inside and outside of Vietnam: The shifting of Vietnam's national interest and how their leadership grasped it are generally factors inside,while the change in their circumstances,both globally and geographical politically are factors outside.This paper's contents generally consist of 4 chapters:The first Chapter will briefly narrate the shift happened in Vietnam's foreign strategy towards China,while sorting out specifically how it was adjusted and their characteristic after China-Vietnam relationship normalized.The Second Chapter will discuss and argue the inner factors that influenced their foreign strategy towards China.It will mainly include Vietnam's interest in its economical benefits and its political security.The Third Chapter will focus on outside factors that influenced their foreign strategy towards China.It will mainly discuss the shifting in political environment both globally and geographical politically in general,and this chapter would focus more specifically on factors from China,United States and ASEAN.The Fourth Chapter will evaluate Vietnam's achievement after its adjusting of foreign strategy towards China after Vietnam-China relationship normalized and analysis how it influenced both countries and South-East Asia Region.This paper will argue that Vietnam's adjust to its diplomatic strategy further developed their relationship with China along with many other neighboring countries.It unchained Vietnam from their previous diplomatic isolation,helped stabilize the region while improved Vietnam's international position and their participation in regional matters.Vietnam's achievement in those matters will continual to push its diplomatic strategy toward a direction that's beneficial to China-Vietnam relationship,but existing conflicts between those two nations could still bring negative impact to this progress.