Vietnam-China economic cooperation: An ambivalent engagement

Zaharul Abdullah and Noor Ashikin Said and Mohamad Ikhram Mohamad Ridzuan (2025) Vietnam-China economic cooperation: An ambivalent engagement. International Journal of Asia Pacific Studies, IJAPS, 21 (1). pp. 241-269. ISSN 1823-6243

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Abstract

Southeast Asia holds a significant role in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), particularly in the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (MSR). Despite the substantial power asymmetry between Southeast Asian nations and China, their responses to the BRI vary, falling into categories such as “the embracers”, “the cautious collaborators”, and “the sceptics”. Vietnam, specifically, has been categorised as “the sceptic” due to the absence of BRI-labelled projects and limited uptake of BRI loans, despite offering diplomatic support to the initiative and joining the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) as a founding member. This article contends that such a label fails to capture Vietnam’s overall economic engagement with China, which can be characterised as “ambivalent engagement”. It argues that while Vietnam exhibits passive resistance towards the BRI, it actively engages in trade, investment, project contracting in energy sector, and economic corridor cooperation with China. This characterisation aligns with Vietnam’s established strategy of engaging with China through a combination of “both cooperation and struggle”. These diverse patterns of agency can be understood through the lens of elite legitimation and external alternatives. By doing so, this article seeks to enrich Kuik’s typology on host-country agency within the context of Southeast Asian states’ responses to the BRI and economic collaboration with China, thereby contributing to the literature on the asymmetry-authority framework.

Item Type:	Article
Keyword:	Vietnam, China, Belt and Road Initiative, Host-country agency, Asymmetry-authority framework
Subjects:	D World History and History Of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Etc. > DS Asia > DS1-937 History of Asia > DS501-518.9 East Asia. The Far East J Political Science > JZ International relations > JZ5-6530 International relations > JZ1305-2060 Scope of international relations. Political theory. Diplomacy > JZ1464-2060 Scope of international relations with regard to countries, territories, regions, etc.
Department:	FACULTY > Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities
Depositing User:	SITI AZIZAH BINTI IDRIS -
Date Deposited:	04 Aug 2025 17:01
Last Modified:	04 Aug 2025 17:01
URI:	https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/44700

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