Vietnam foils China’s plans to divide and rule ASEAN

Ever since Cambodia assumed the role of ASEAN chair, China has been doing everything under its control to use its influence over Cambodia to divide and rule the ASEAN. Cambodia, being a de facto lackey of China, has obliged and is taking ASEAN towards a major split. Beijing is trying to play into ASEAN’s divisions and is actively looking to pull countries like Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia to its side. 

Vietnam has, however, pre-empted China’s divide and rule strategy. Hanoi knows that China wants to secure a favourable South China Sea Code of Conduct through its influence on Cambodia, but it won’t let China have its way. Vietnam is now escalating its border tensions with China in a bid to keep the anti-China sentiment in ASEAN intact and foil Beijing’s evil gameplan. 

Vietnam’s border tensions with China 

Vietnam and China have been involved in border tensions for weeks now. 

No, we are not talking about soldiers pointing guns at each other. The ongoing border tussle involves security forces, villagers and truck drivers. Thousands of Vietnamese truck drivers remain stuck at the border crossings with China. In more remote stretches of the Sino-Vietnamese border, there have been minor clashes between Chinese security forces on one side, and Vietnamese villagers and workers on the other. 

China trying to fence the border 

An unidentified Twitter video posted on January 3 showed Chinese security forces pelting stones at Vietnamese construction workers who were apparently rebuilding the banks of a river that divides the two countries.

Also read: First Vietnam, now India: Russia is dropping very clear hints that it’s no ally of China

China’s economic coercion 

Beijing claims that the restrictions on the movement of Vietnamese trucks into China is a part of its COVID containment strategy. However, Vietnam is angry. It has even asked farmers to delay harvest because food worth millions of dollars is already rotting on the borders.

China is clearly using COVID as a cover to harass Vietnam. This is Chinese economic coercion at its worst. Livelihoods of border villagers depend upon easy transit across the border, but in the garb of the Pandemic, China is trying to permanently seal the border and also cut down on trade which is crucial for Vietnamese farmers in the bordering areas.

Vietnam exposes China  

And Vietnam is making it a point to expose China’s economic coercion. It has publicly blamed China’s overzealous Pandemic restrictions. In a statement issued on December 31, Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade described Beijing’s Pandemic-prevention measures as “over necessary”. The Ministry said that “this disruption has caused [a] negative impact on bilateral trade and great losses to businesses and people on both sides”. 

Vietnam claims that there have been few reported COVID-19 cases on the Chinese side of the border. Yet, China has come up with some absurd containment measures like blocking the import of dragonfruit but allowing the import of other types of fruit. Why? Does the bio-warfare unit of the Chinese PLA believe that dragonfruit is an easy carrier of the virus? 

Local Vietnamese officials claim that they have had more than 50 rounds of talks with their counterparts from China’s Guangxi Province. But the Chinese are simply not ready to resolve the situation and even discussions at the Deputy Foreign Minister level haven’t helped reach a breakthrough. 

And then, there are reports of protests by some villagers whose livelihoods and family arrangements run the risk of getting jeopardized by China’s ongoing action of sealing the border with a permanent fence designed to outlast the borders.  

Vietnam stonewalls China’s ‘divide and rule’ strategy

Beijing was successfully using the China-Cambodia nexus to drive a wedge in ASEAN, and get Cambodia to draft a favourable South China Sea Code of Conduct. 

Also read: Japan and Australia in ASEAN’s defence hotline is adding to China’s horrors