China-Vietnamese Relations in the Era of Rising China: Power, Resistance, and Maritime Conflict

In the twenty-first century, China and Vietnam have experienced heightened conflict over their disputes in the South China Sea. But Chinese policy and the writings of Chinese observers make clear that, for China, this conflict is a struggle between a great power and its smaller neighbor over China's demand for a sphere of influence on its borders. Since 1949, the People's Republic of China has consistently maintained that Vietnam reject strategic cooperation with an extra-regional power. For Vietnam, however, China's looming presence poses an existential threat that drives Vietnamese leaders to seek support from extra-regional powers. Since 2010, China has relied on coercive diplomacy and threats of crisis escalation to constrain Vietnamese reliance on outside powers, especially the United States, to challenge Chinese interests.

Automated summary

In the twenty-first century, China and Vietnam have experienced heightened conflict in the South China Sea due to China's demand for a sphere of influence on its borders. China has used coercive diplomacy to constrain Vietnam's relationships with outside powers, leading Vietnamese leaders to seek external support.