Xi arrives to woo Vietnam comrades and reverse USA drift

Business booming at the China-Vietnam borderChina has been Vietnam’s biggest trade partner for the past 11 years, and business people from both countries are beneficiaries of these strengthening ties.Dongxing, the border city of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is the gateway between China and Vietnam, around 15,000 people pass through the area each day.

Anti-China sentiments are still running high in Vietnam, a year after Beijing placed a controversial oil rig in disputed waters, leading to several small maritime confrontations and deadly rioting in mainland Vietnam, which is one of several countries with competing maritime claims with China.

“Chinese leaders long ago realized that to secure long-term stability in bilateral ties, a key factor and challenge is to win over the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese young people”, said Shen Shishun, a senior researcher at the China Institute of worldwide Studies.

This is the first time a Chinese president has visited Vietnam in 10 years.

Taking the second question, first, it needs to be pointed out that if the Chinese President’s current visit to Vietnam was aimed at a “reset” of China-Vietnam relations, then, it should have been a Vietnam-specific visit to add diplomatic and political finesse’.

President Xi will head to Singapore later Friday upon the invitation of President Tony Tan Keng Yam.

“Immediately end activities which threaten the lives, property and right to freedom” of Vietnamese fishermen, said a petition signed by hundreds and shared on Facebook, referring to the disputed isles.

China’s President Xi Jinping & his spouse Peng Liyuan arrive at Noi Bai global Airport in Hanoi, Vietnam, Thurs., November 5, 2015.

America’s naval intervention will further boost Dung’s faction in the run-up to the congress. Dung’s allies were already well-poised to sweep the party’s four top positions, namely prime minister, president, National Assembly chairman, and party secretary general.

In terms of tourism, China remained the country to send the most tourists to Vietnam, with 12.6 million visiting between January and September. Visits by foreign ships are rare and usually reserved for maintenance.

Vietnam’s geographical tyranny has left it with limited options but to be civil to China, which also happens to be a Communist neighbour, that was markedly absent in the traditional “fraternal ties” that should have prevailed between two Communist countries. The Spratlys and Paracels have always belonged to Vietnam, and we have all historical and legal evidence to support our sovereignty.

The China Development Bank will also provide capital for thermal power plant projects in Vietnam, and arrange finance for one such facility in the south-central region, according to two separate memoranda it closed with the Vietnam National Coal – Mineral Industries Group and the Vinh Tan 3 Energy JSC.

Vietnamese media quoted Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh as saying that “all major and strategic issues, including the South China Sea, would be on the agenda”.

Japanese and Vietnamese defense chiefs agreed at their meeting in Hanoi on Friday that ships of Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force will call at a military port in southern Vietnam.