China and Vietnam: From Shared Past to a Shared Future
To Lam, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee and Vietnamese President, has arrived in China for his first state visit and has met with General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Over the past decade, top leaders of these two neighboring and ideologically aligned countries have engaged in numerous exchanges and diplomatic interactions, aiming to deepen and elevate their comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership and build a China-Vietnam community with a shared future of strategic significance.
A Shared Past Lays the Foundation for Cooperation
China and Vietnam share a similar modern history of fighting against Western colonialism and imperialism during the 19th and 20th centuries. China’s struggle against British aggression in 1840 parallels Vietnam’s resistance against the French invasion that began in 1858, leading to a series of unequal treaties and Vietnam becoming a French protectorate in 1885.
Like the Chinese people, who waged revolutionary struggles against imperialism and feudalism, the Vietnamese people persisted in their fight for independence and liberation. The late Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh initiated his revolutionary activities in Guangzhou in 1925 and formally founded the CPV in Hong Kong in 1930. He led the August Revolution and declared the founding of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) in September 1945.
Despite declaring independence, Vietnam continued to face Western imperialist influence. The founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 and the success of the Chinese revolution led by the CPC created new dynamics for Vietnam’s liberation efforts. Despite facing urgent domestic development tasks and severe international pressure, the Chinese government and people selflessly supported the Vietnamese people with moral and material aid. With this support and other factors, the DRV ultimately liberated its southern region and established the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) in 1976.
Building a Shared Future
In the early days of the SRV, Vietnam faced numerous challenges. To promote national development, Vietnam, much like China’s reform and opening-up in the 1970s, implemented comprehensive reforms known as Doi Moi in the 1980s. These reforms centered on combining market mechanisms with socialist principles.
From then until the 12th National Congress of the CPV in 2016, Vietnam underwent substantial changes in all respects. The country transformed from an underdeveloped nation with outdated material and technological bases and backward socio-economic infrastructures into a middle-income developing country. Vietnam’s culture and society have continuously developed, the material and spiritual living standards of its people have improved, breakthroughs in party-building and the building of a political system have been achieved, national unity has been consolidated, and political and social stability has been maintained.
Today, China and Vietnam continue to strengthen their ties, leveraging their shared history and socialist ideologies to forge a path toward mutual prosperity. The ongoing state visit by To Lam signifies the commitment of both nations to deepen their comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership. As they build a community with a shared future, China and Vietnam are poised to contribute significantly to regional stability and development.
Reference(s):
cgtn.com
