Why are so many Vietnamese in the US pro-Trump and anti-China?
- China’s rise has given a new cause to the many Vietnamese-Americans who have spent years campaigning against Hanoi’s communist party-controlled government
- Tibet, the Uygurs, the South China Sea and even Hong Kong are among the concerns for groups that insist Beijing is a threat not only to Vietnam, but the world at large
Japan boosts security ties with Vietnam as it ramps up pressure on China
Tran, who helped organise the poll, said Hanoi would never defend the country’s sovereignty from an encroaching Chinese presence.
“Vietnam and China shared the same communist ideology,” he said. “Taking a stronger stance means a break from that ideology, which may lead to a disruption of that same political order and governance structures. Vietnam and China are police states, with close cooperation between the two internal security apparatuses.”
Tuong Vu, a professor of political science at the University of Oregon, said that diaspora activists had begun taking a particular interest in issues such as the South China Sea after the killing of nine Vietnamese fishermen accused of piracy in 2005.
“They have influenced many activists inside Vietnam who call for the Vietnamese government to undertake a stronger position vis-à-vis China as well as legal means to defend Vietnam‘s sovereignty claims,” Vu said. “Their influence may be direct through personal networks or indirect through their writings and their efforts to publicise the issues, identify strategies, and make available materials.”
Nonetheless, central to the advocacy of groups such as Vietnam Democracy Centre is the insistence that Beijing poses a threat not just to Vietnam, but the world at large.
Some activists involved in the South China Sea campaign have set about lobbying to have the Chinese Communist Party designated as a transnational criminal organisation, a cause taken up by Republican Congressman Scott Perry, who on October 1 introduced a related bill in the US House of Representatives.
US power advantage over China declines in wake of coronavirus pandemic
Vietnam’s relations with China have been historically fraught, with the sides fighting a string of border conflicts before normalising ties in 1991. In a 2017 Pew survey, just 10 per cent of Vietnamese said they had a positive view of their larger neighbour.
Those historical grievances have been aggravated in recent years by repeated confrontations in the South China Sea, including a weeks-long stand-off in 2014 after a Chinese company deployed an oil rig in the waters, sparking riots across the Southeast Asian country.
00:53
South China Sea: Don’t let China ‘walk over us’, says Pompeo during Asean meeting
“Many activists abroad are hawkish on China because it dovetails with their dislike of the Vietnamese Communist Party,” said Nguyen. “Historically, this makes sense as both parties share similar origins and obviously run very similar one-party authoritarian states today.”
But Nguyen said efforts by the diaspora to pressure China had limited potential as the same activists stood in opposition to the Vietnamese government.
“Thus, any kind of unified effort to curb China‘s actions – and it must be unified – is dead on arrival,” Nguyen said.
“President Trump and his current administration are aware that the dragon has awakened,” said Linh Nguyen of the Minh Van Foundation. “The others are still hoping that China is acting in good faith.”
Nguyen-vo Thu-huong, an associate professor of Asian-American Studies at University of California, Los Angeles, said traditional opposition toward China and communism among the diaspora was now being conflated by some activists with support for Trump and his wider agenda.
Is India-Vietnam military alliance about to clash with China-Pakistan?
Tran, the head of the Vietnam Democracy Centre, said he was not focused on the outcome of the election, but on continuing to spread his message to the world.
“We are not in the business of forecasting winners and losers,” he said. “We know that, regardless of who wins, our task is still the same. Our job is to inform the public and our elected representatives from all levels of government and from all governments, that communism is bad and evil.”