Vietnam Was Plus One, Now It’s a Question Mark
Is Hanoi’s political drama an omen of a resurgent China?
A silhouette of Vietnam in a field of red incense sticks.
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Communist Vietnam’s founding father Ho Chi Minh famously compared his country’s relationship to its enormous northern neighbor China as “close as lips and teeth.” But a brief but fierce border war in 1979 and territorial counter-claims in the South China sea would estrange Hanoi and Beijing. No longer kissin’ kin, Vietnam then consorted with its other old enemy, the US, which was keen on containing China. Indeed, Vietnam would exploit the “China Plus One” policy of many countries, through which they’d diversify their supply chain dependence on Chinese manufacturing by finding alternatives in other industrious and politically stable developing nations. When investors spoke of the Plus One nations, which include India and Turkey, Vietnam was almost always the wunderkind — super-efficient, cheap and, with the Communist party firmly in command, politically sturdy. A big plus for countries trying to minus themselves from China.