A look at the countries' shared history and some most
recent ups and downs in relations. Divided opinions within Vietnam's Communist
Party on how to relate to giant neighbor and one-time ally China are among key
factors in play at an eight-day congress to choose new leadership.
Longtime rivalsVietnam and China have a complex
relationship going back more than 2,000 years, including several periods of
Chinese imperial occupation that were ended by Vietnamese uprisings.
Despite its early support for the Vietnamese Communist
Party, China invaded in 1979 in retaliation for Hanoi's overthrow of the Khmer
Rouge in Cambodia. Diplomatic ties were restored in 1991, but tensions have
risen in recent years due to competing claims to islands and reefs in the South
China Sea.
Keeping watch China is closely observing the party
congress and has emphasized the importance of China-Vietnam relations,
including $90 billion in bilateral trade last year."As a good neighbor,
friend, comrade and partner to Vietnam, we wish to advance the overall
strategic relationship into a new stage on the basis of long-term stability,
forward thinking and good neighborliness," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong
Lei said Friday."We also wish to work with Vietnam to appropriately
control maritime disputes with Vietnam so as to safeguard the maritime
stability."
Oil rig dispute In May 2014, China parked a huge oil
drilling platform off the Vietnamese coast in an area where the two countries'
exclusive economic zones overlap. Vietnam furiously denounced the move and sent
fishing boats and coast guard vessels to harass the rig and nearby Chinese
vessels. Skirmishes led to collisions and the capsizing of at least one
Vietnamese boat, while in Vietnam anti-Chinese rioting and the looting of
Chinese and other foreign-owned factories left at least four Chinese citizens
dead.
China's outreachChinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi
visited Vietnam in June 2014 to try to contain the oil rig dispute.
Despite receiving a frosty reception from Vietnamese
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, escalation was avoided. More significantly, the
oil rig incident nudged Vietnam closer to its old enemy the United States,
which later that year partially lifted an arms embargo specifically to help
improve Vietnam's maritime security.
Competing claimsChina withdrew the rig in July 2014,
one month ahead of schedule, saying it had completed its mission.
The confrontation is widely seen as part of a Chinese
strategy to strengthen its footprint in the South China Sea, all or part of
which is also claimed by Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei.
The incident also focuses renewed attention on a
perceived split within the Vietnamese Communist Party between pro- and anti-China
factions.
Vietnam visitsFollowing a prolonged chill, Communist
Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong (pronounced NEW-yen FOO CHONG) led a delegation to
Beijing in April 2015 and was greeted by President Xi Jinping with full
military honors at the Great Hall of the People. Though little of substance
resulted from the four-day trip visit, it is seen as helping get relations back
on track.
Mending tiesChina's Xi made a state visit to Vietnam
in November 2015, during which he and Trong agree to limit their differences
and maintain peace and stability.Xi said China will "strive together with
Vietnam to control differences at sea." Trong proposed that neither side
take actions that increase tensions.
During the visit, about 30 people protested briefly in
front of the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi. Xi also addressed Vietnam's National
Assembly, but avoided mentioning the South China Sea and the 1979 war.
Tensions renewedVietnam protested to China in January
over a test flight to a new airstrip on one of Beijing's man-made island in the
disputed Spratly Islands.
Vietnam Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh
demanded an end to such flights, saying they violate Vietnam's sovereignty and
hurt bilateral relations. China responded that the flights fall
"completely within China's sovereignty." Days later, China conducted
two more test flights. The South China Sea dispute looks only to grow more
complex as China completes infrastructure on its newly created islands and
boosts its maritime defense forces beyond anything its rival claimants can
muster.
Christoper Bodeen, Associated Press, Beijing
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