The westernization of Vietnam The next South Korea is Ukraine
Located in the "** zone" of the Indochina Peninsula, Vietnam has a terrain like a flat shoulder, and the fertile Mekong River Delta in the south, with a natural geographical location. Vietnam was once a vassal state of China, and the two countries had a close relationship after World War II.
However, since the 80s of the last century, the divergence between the development paths of the two countries has widened, with China adhering to the socialist path and creating socialism with Chinese characteristics, while Vietnam has drifted away from the total westernization.
Title: Vietnam's Future: Will South Korea's Success Be Replicated or Will Ukraine Be Repeated? Content: After the end of World War II, the United States supported the establishment of the Ngo Dinh Diem regime in southern Vietnam.
This regime introduced a wave of Westernization in Vietnam, carrying out drastic reforms of Vietnam's original social system. The first is the implementation of a false Western system of universal suffrage.
Although it is nominally a "referendum", it is actually fraud. After coming to power through the "democratic system", Ngo Dinh Diem vigorously engaged in military rule, and in order to promote ** religion, wantonly ** Buddhists, and also carried out land reform to restrict the privileges of the old aristocracy.
So, what does the future hold for Vietnam? Will it be the next Korea? Or another Ukraine? It depends on whether Vietnam can learn the lessons of history and carry out reform and construction wisely.
The Ngo Dinh Diem regime brought in American capital in an attempt to promote Vietnam's economic and social development through modern enterprises. However, the reforms touched the interests of the old aristocracy and clashed with those of the United States.
In the end, Ngo Dinh Diem's reforms were met with a military coup d'état and ended in failure. This shows that Vietnam's"Westernization reforms"It is not suitable for the local environment. After the reunification of Vietnam, it has been following China's development for a long time.
After China's reform and opening up, Vietnam also tried"Innovation and openness", but later developments gradually deviated from the original path. In 1995, Vietnam established formal diplomatic relations with the United States and began all-round cooperation.
With the support of U.S. capital, Vietnam has rapidly integrated into the Western-dominated economic system and has achieved economic and social development.
Vietnam has deepened its cooperation in the economic field and has joined a number of economic organizations, such as the Vietnam-EU Free Trade Area Agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.
However, the United States also has a large number of political conditions attached to its economic cooperation, such as human rights, freedom, and universal suffrage. With the deepening of economic cooperation, Vietnam is going further and further on the road of westernization.
In response to U.S. pressure, Vietnam underwent political reforms. In 2013, the country's constitution was amended to explicitly put forward Western political principles such as "democratization", "system", "non-party of the military" and "separation of powers".
In addition, Viet Nam has held universal national elections and amended the Labor Law to allow for the establishment of Western-style trade unions, and even abolished the lifelong system of civil servants in favor of a contract system.
In the social and cultural sphere, the influence of the United States is also very significant. The position is widely accepted in Vietnamese society.
Vietnamese history textbooks lightly record the Vietnam War, but portray Vietnamese history as a history of confrontation with China. And in the Sino-American economy**, Vietnam has received a lot of benefits, and is even known as the old fisherman who "profited".
During the Obama era, the United States included Vietnam in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and worked with Japan and South Korea to contain China.
With the support of the United States, labor-intensive industries such as Samsung, Foxconn, Coach, and Uniqlo have invested and set up factories in Vietnam, which has greatly promoted Vietnam's economic development.
Especially in the luxury market, most of the light and mid-luxury shoes and leather goods in the international market are printed with the label "Made in Viet Nam".
Vietnam's economic development has attracted global attention, and it even wanted to challenge China's status as the "world's factory" at one point. However, in recent years, China has been committed to upgrading its industrial structure and turning its attention to high-tech and high-value-added industries, and there is no substantial competition with Vietnam.
So, is it possible for Vietnam to replicate South Korea's "Han River Miracle"? Vietnam, like South Korea, is a "small country" in the eyes of major powers. At present, the main gap between the two countries includes not only the level of technology and infrastructure, but also the degree of support from the United States.
South Korea's rapid rise after World War II is due to the fact that the United States needs to have a "bridgehead" against socialist countries in East Asia in the context of the global Cold War.
Since its founding, South Korea has closely followed the steps of the United States, which is also the basis of the "Han River Miracle". The United States has invested a lot of resources in South Korea over the decades, laying a solid foundation for South Korea's economic take-off.
However, the situation in Vietnam is different, they did not achieve the reunification of the North and the South until the 70s of the last century, and they have been enemies of the United States for a long time, and there are constant wars. After the end of the Cold War, although Vietnam intends to seek refuge in the United States, because it has missed the first period of economic development, Western countries have transferred industries to East Asia on a large scale, and Vietnam's development opportunities have decreased.
Even if the United States provides assistance, it will not allow Vietnam to take off economically like South Korea. And the emergence of the "Han River miracle" is inseparable from the role of the Korean chaebol. The role of the chaebols in South Korea is controversial, but in the early days of South Korea's economic take-off, they concentrated superior resources and played a role in promoting economic development, which is very important for the development of small countries such as South Korea and Vietnam.
In modern society, business management has become an important role of each team. However, Vietnam's military had problems in its commercial operations. They have not been able to boost Vietnam's economic development, but have become a hindrance.
What is more serious is that conniving at the military to do business and making it a "privileged class" is a manifestation of the weakening of the leadership of the Viet Cong and the westernization of Vietnam's political society, which poses a serious threat to the stability of the Vietnamese state.
Looking back at history, the collapse of the Soviet Union was closely related to the westernization of the army, which lost its right direction and eventually collapsed. In Vietnam, the army faced the same problem.
If Vietnam continues to westernize, it could lead to the country**, the path to Ukraine. Therefore, Vietnam should be thoughtful, not blindly copying South Korea's development path, but should seek a development path that suits it and avoid deviating political reforms that lead to the country's first place.
While Vietnam may imitate South Korea in creating the "Han River Miracle", it is unlikely.
Choosing to go the wrong path can lead to confrontation and disintegration in the country, just like the current situation in Ukraine. Vietnam has a long history of the north and the south, with the capitalist system in the south and the socialist system in the north.
Even after the reunification of the North and the South, the contradictions between the North and the South in Vietnam still existed. Coupled with the fact that Vietnam has carried out a series of reforms following the "separation of powers" of the West, its national politics is characterized by extreme decentralization of power and is prone to **.
Since 2015, Vietnam has been promoting the so-called "referendum law" with slogans such as "independence" and "freedom". Through multiple rounds of reforms, Vietnam's state power has presented a multi-headed structure of "four troikas", with the general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the prime minister of Vietnam, and the chairman of the National Assembly jointly holding the supreme power of the country and being independent of each other.
The North-South conflict has become a prominent feature of Vietnam's political structure, with the post of prime minister usually held by a southerner and a northerner as secretary. This has led to the extreme decentralization of power in the Vietnamese state, with various political forces intertwined, forming a political system called "weak kings and powers".
Worryingly, this Westernization at the political level continues. In 2018, Vietnam's prime minister publicly stated that "the Viet Cong will be the first communist party in history to voluntarily relinquish power".
If this scenario does come to fruition, the likelihood of a Vietnamese state** will increase significantly. Ukraine's chaotic situation today is closely related to the contradictions between the east and the west of the country.
Back in 2004, the eastern and western regions of Ukraine were divided into "** faction" and "pro-Russian faction". This laid the groundwork for the current country.
If Vietnam continues to weaken its leadership on the path of Westernization reforms, it may lead to social unrest and even civil war. South Korea has followed the United States since its founding, but its economy is sluggish, chaebols are rampant, the political situation is unstable, and security concerns are concerning.
Similarly, Ukraine, after the collapse of the USSR, in order to cater to the United States, destroyed all nuclear **, but the result was not obtained"Common prosperity", on the contrary, exacerbated its own unstable factors.
Decades later, those countries that were "deceived", such as Ukraine, became "tools of the United States", and in order to cooperate with the American strategy, they did not hesitate to confront Russia, which eventually led to the destabilization of their own countries.
Now, Vietnam is making rapid progress on the path of total westernization in order to obtain empty promises and assistance from the United States, and they have deviated from the path of socialism, whether it has become a turbulent Ukraine or a falsely prosperous South Korea.
References: [1] Pan Jin'e, "Analysis of Vietnam's Diplomacy", Yunmeng Journal, 2021, No. 4. [2] Shi Xueqin and Zheng Qingqing, "Vietnam's Response Strategies to Sino-US Strategic Competition", in Nanyang Studies, 2022, No. 3.
3] Chen Xianliang and Wu Xia, "Western Countries' Democracy Export Policies to Vietnam and Vietnam's Response", in Research on Ideological and Political Education, 2021, No. 2.
4] Xia Mengzhen and Hao Yufan, "Vietnamese People's Perception of the Image of China and the United States", Academic Research, 2020, No. 7.