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

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The US and Vietnamese flags are waved in Hanoi as a motorcade transports North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to a summit with President Donald Trump. Photo: AP

Published: 5:00am, 19 Oct 2020Updated: 12:12pm, 20 Oct 2020

David Tran has dedicated most of his life to campaigning for the fall of the communist party-controlled government in Vietnam.

Like many members of the Vietnamese diaspora in the United States, Tran, who immigrated as a teenager more than three decades ago, has long dreamed of the day when his homeland embraces liberal democracy.

These days, though, Tran, who runs the Texas-based Vietnam Democracy Centre, increasingly has another one-party state in his sights: China.

“We look at the vision of the future, a future led by the Chinese Communist Party through the images of Tibet and Xinjiang and the South China Sea and even Hong Kong … and we don’t accept that future for our children and our grandchildren,” said Tran, who works as a medical doctor.

For many Vietnamese-Americans who spent years or even decades involved in advocacy against Hanoi, China’s rise has refocused their efforts to raise awareness of democracy, human rights and the dangers of communism.

A television screen shows Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Vietnamese counterpart Pham Binh Minh in Hanoi. Photo: AP

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