Welcome to Myth and Misperception! It has never been more urgent to understand China’s relations with the Global South and how they impact the United States. Unfortunately, many observers in the West do not have a firm understanding of these relationships due to an absence of native voices. This shortage has contributed to many Western misperceptions of the Global South, of which Vietnam is a part. As a Vietnam expert, I hope to challenge these misperceptions and contribute a native perspective on Vietnam’s foreign relations with China and the West in each edition of M&M.

What Is the Misperception?

Let’s start with one of the most common misperceptions about Vietnam that there are pro-U.S. and pro-China factions within the government. The misperception is so widespread that many observers often evoke the language of political factions when discussing Vietnamese foreign relations, with the logic working as follow: Vietnam will lean toward the United States when the pro-U.S. “faction” is getting an upper hand, and it will cooperate more with China when the pro-China “faction” is having an edge.