How is Vietnam doing?
How is Vietnam doing?
What are their conditions like?
What is the people's faith in socialism?
How is the government moving towards socialism?
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What are their conditions like?
Last year, I have seen many households in my rural village got rich, built new houses, some even bought cars (foreign cars are heavily taxed so they are some kinds of luxury good). This was because as the nation attract foreign investments, our farmers have the opportunity to earn additional incomes by going into factories to work.
What is the people’s faith in socialism?
The people's faith in our Party and government is very strong. Young people (Gen Z) also have trust in our path to socialism. Vietnam's economic successess only strengthen that faith. We understand that patriotism is synonymous with socialism.
But not everyone trusts this path. Vietnam is diverse, and so are opinions. Liberal bourgeoisies do exist, albeit only a minority. If I have to guess, they are probably the ones who benefited from the exploitation by the West the most, either that, or socialist policies by the government don't often benefit them.
How is the government moving towards socialism?
Vietnam aims to "lift everyone up without leaving anyone behind". It means that we aim to reduce wealth inequality whilst developing our economy. Not only that, we also reduce opportunity inequality as well as we encourage education for less fortunate people.
(BTW, Reddit, being removed, will often mass downvote any mention of the word "equity", but "equity" was one of the factors contributed to Vietnam's success)
We also have a policy of national unity and social harmony. This means that we support ethnic minorities to build wealth (how do I translate "làm kinh tế"?) whilst preserving their cultures. We promote harmony between religions. The Party refrains from things that could cause divisions amongst different groups.
(Although, worryingly, a part of our youth on social media is importing the Culture War from the US, very dumb, but no major media are promoting this shit, so that's a plus)
Our current focus is in modernizing (digitalizing) the nation, we intend to develop our own core technologies (energy, chips, 5G, metro rails, etc) so that we may be truly self-sufficient and independent.
Our foreign policy is called "bamboo diplomacy": Strong root, flexible treetops. We aim to be friend with all nations in the world (by "friend" we mean economic partners, not military alliance).
We also have a non-alignment policy known as "Four No's". This means that as a neutral country with stable politics, we have effectively become a bridge that connects major nations together. The US wages a trade war against China on the surface, but they still trade with each other through us.
As a result, we have become some sort of geopolitical star with which everyone want to cooperate. From major powers such as China, Russia, the US, to medium sized economies such as South Korea, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Europe, etc. And I expect even more in the future.
Anyway, I'm tried of typing, so it ends here.
But before that, have you guys watched "Bắc Bling"? It is a recently released MV that promote our culture, it is well-loved by Vietnamese people.
Edit: Didn't know Lemmygrad would censor the R-word. Oh well.
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Thanks for exhaustive comment. What would you say is Vietnam's biggest challenge at the moment?
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The world is being increasingly divided, mainly between the West and China/Russia, who are all major trading partners with Vietnam. This geopolitical turbulence could pose challenge to our diplomacy and economy.
Diplomacy-wise, we need to be careful to not align with one against another, and we should avoid being forced to take a side. As long as we know what cards we have, this challenge should be overcome.
Economy-wise, unstable geopolitics create unstable global economy. This chaos may cause difficulty to the most economically vulnerable in Vietnam. Both the USD and the VND may continue to fall, causing inflation. Our central bank need to have a good fiscal policy to stabilize our economy.
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What are the views of the average vietnamese of china, especially someone from the countryside? i imagine not very good considering many chinese also dislike Vietnam, a shame but not uncalled for.
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Most people you see on the English-speaking Internet will propagate the narrative that Vietnamese hate China, they would mention the 1979 border conflict, the disputes in the South China Sea, as well as our shared history of conflicts (Chinese dynasties of that would often invade Vietnam). If I have to guess, this is probably because they want to get close to Westerners.
But the Vietnamese speaking side is a bit more nuanced. To generalize: Emotionally, we dislike China, but rationally, we respect China, even more so than we do the US. We aspire the Chinese achievements.
We are aware of the similarities between the 2 nations: Both Marxist-Leninist, both face the threats of color revolutions. Both countries share some similarities in policies as well: national unity, social harmony between different ethnics and religions, emphasis on education, reduction of wealth inequality, lifting people out of poverty, controlling capitalists, etc. Most Vietnamese understand that China, as a neighbor, is inseparable from our destiny, so we should strive toward cooperations that benefit both side rather than enmity that benefit no one. (BTW, most Vietnamese look down on post-Maidan Ukraine).
Culturally speaking, we are one of the non-Chinese-speaking nations that absorb and consume Chinese cultural products the most. Both in the past and current days. Journey to the West 1986 would air on our national television every summer. When I was a child, Wuxia shows were all the rage. Nowadays, it's the wish-fulfilling romance genre for some reason (featuring ultra rich and powerful and super handsome male lead who is cold to everyone except the female protagonist, Vietnamese netizens call it "Tổng Tài", some including my niece call it "ngôn lù"). Romance of the Three Kingdoms are popular as well, to such an extent that most of our domestically developed Gacha games are Three Kingdoms themed. We also consume recent Chinese successes such as Black Myth: Wukong and Nezha (my Facebook front page kept mentioning them for months). Also, of all the foreign music genres, Chinese music resonate with Vietnamese the most. Anyway, there will be no end if I try to list every Chinese cultural influence on Vietnam so let's change topic.
On the flip side, however, there are ultranationalists and anti-communist reactionaries who both openly hate on China for different reasons. The ultranationalists hate China because they lack knowledge and they don't truly understand what it means to be patriotic. The anti-communist reactionaries hate China for being communist, they hate the Vietnamese government as well. They often attempt to incite conflicts between Vietnam and China, they will sabotage cooperations between the 2 nations. Vietnam's industrialization had been set back for years because of these reactionary "activists". The ultranationalists are stupid, but educatable and thus toleratable, but I will not suffer reactionaries for reasons aforementioned.
A long time ago, I also used to dislike China. I liked the US more. But after having engaged with the Americans, I saw through their demerits: arrogance, ignorance, racist (it was towards the Chinese, but it's still racism), insecured, incompetence, etc. A society that allows stupidity to fester is a doomed society. This made me to have a change of hearts. I concluded that the US is a declining empire and thus not worth aspiring to.
many chinese also dislike Vietnam
I would guess it's mainly 2 reasons:
- They are ultranationalists and Han chauvinists who want to drive China into an imperialist/neo-colonial path (just like the US).
- But most of them have seen the apparent hostility from Vietnamese and hate Vietnam for it. This is projection on my part. Because Vietnamese also observe the apparent hostility from Cambodian extremists who see Vietnam as an invader and an occupier (we had to deal with the Pol Pot regime).
On the topic of ultranationalist Chinese, there's this guy who is very cringe (this link was edited by me because this guy deleted his heavily downvoted comment only to repost a new one). I somehow doubt they are a real Chinese though. Real patriotic Chinese wouldn't come there to provoke hatred against their own people, right?
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Edit: Didn’t know Lemmygrad would censor the R-word. Oh well.
if we're thinking of the same R-word, that's a slur in this context
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We understand that socialism is synonymous with socalism.
I'm not sure what this means, can you elaborate?
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Can you link bac bling? I don't think I find the right thing 😄
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