The US secretary of state does n’t typically visit a Communist party’s general secretary’s funeral.
Yet that is precisely what Washington’s best minister, Antony Blinken, had planned to do for the final rites of Nguyen Phu Trong, the longtime leader of Vietnam, who died in office on July 19, 2024, aged 80. Ultimately, Blinken could n’t make it to the funeral, but he did visit Hanoi a day later.
That, he paid his respects to the Vietnamese authorities and to the home of Trong, whose 13-year rule saw the country make huge achievements, including a drastic reduction in the world’s poverty rate – from 14 % of the people in 2010 to 4 % in 2022.
Officials ‘ departures give them an opportunity to review how the nation fared during that time and what the future holds. Trong you be proud of his accomplishments in that respect because Vietnam has made significant economic and social progress and appears to be headed in that direction.
In addition, smaller states can use Trong’s collection of “bamboo politics” as a model for them as they navigate the complexity of shifting politics and growing US-China tensions.
Vietnam’s victory account
When Trong, the country’s most effective figure, took over as leader of the country’s ruling Communist Party in 2011, Vietnam was already on a higher trend.
The” Doi Moi” or “renovation” reforms of 1986, which Vietnam’s economy had endured for decades of stagnation and extreme poverty, resulted in what the World Bank calls a “development success story.”
Over the course of a 40-year time, Vietnam became a middle-income country after moving from one of the poorest nations in the world.
Under Trong’s watch, the country of close to 100 million people has seen average annual growth of 5.8 % – one of the highest in Asia and the world.
And despite its” sandwich” position in the current great power competition, Vietnam under Trong managed to maintain good relations with Beijing, Moscow and Washington. However, Vietnam has emerged as a key person in Asia.
To the surprise of some foreign spectators, it joined the negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership – the only socialist state to do so – and has been, since 2018, a part of the successor to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership. In 2020, Vietnam joined the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the biggest deal deal anywhere in the world.
Trong’s mission
But Trong’s efforts were n’t foregrounded in some of the accounts of his death. The cliches that American media overuse to portray leaders of developing nations were a common recurrence in the cover of the occasion.
” Hardliner” and” Marxist-Leninist ideologue” were the terms used to describe him in rather one-dimensional reports.
To his credit, Blinken described Trong as” a creative head” in his gift.
Trong has not always been viewed positively by another US officials. Democratic and Republican lawmakers criticized the Obama administration for accommodating the hero of” an autocratic one-party system” responsible for Vietnam’s “deplorable human rights situation” during Trong’s traditional White House visit in 2015.
However, while Vietnam is far from being a republic – the one-party condition does not help much space for protest, and there are, according to some estimates, approximately 160 political prisoners – that is only part of the story.
Much of what is happening in the World South is lost when we focus on civil and political freedoms to the detriment of almost everything else, including economic growth.
Some in the West criticized Trong’s anti-corruption “blazing burner” plan, which spanned the party’s highest levels and led to the discipline of hundreds, including two former president and seven Communist Party Politburo individuals, as a power grab or an anti-business witch hunt.
A different approach
In my view, Trong was a remarkable man with an enviable record. In contrast to other Vietnamese officials, he was modest and unassuming, lived in ordinary, government-provided housing, drove an old, battered Toyota Crown and was steeped in the mores of Vietnam’s collective leadership traditions.
Trong had a background in history and had previously studied postgraduate studies in Moscow, which helped shape his conception of Vietnam’s future in the twenty-first century.
He tried a different strategy because he was aware that Vietnam had repeatedly won wars against formidable foes in the past, including the French in 1954, the Americans in 1975, and the Chinese in 1979, only to lose the peace that followed because of his unwavering positions.
This included reviving the economy, making a pitch for foreign investment, and doubling down on the promotion of local manufacturing and the export sector.
Trong was particularly successful in attracting US businesses who wanted to reduce their reliance on their operations in China and to rely on “friend-shoring,” or investment in countries that were seen as friendly.
Amazingly, he was able to do the same with China.
The foundation of “bamboo diplomacy,” the foreign policy strategy Trong will be most remembered for, was this careful cultivation of ties with both Washington and Beijing.
A successful foreign policy, according to Trong in a speech from 2016 that noted that bamboo itself required” strong roots, stout trunk, and flexible branches” was sparked by the growing tensions between China and the US.
What is bamboo diplomacy?
In bamboo diplomacy, the idea is simple: to reject competing interests in great power politics. No military formation or alliance with any power, no bases on Vietnamese soil, and no reliance on another country to thwart a third party are the” Three Noes” policy, as stated in a book Trong published in 2023.
In practice, bamboo diplomacy entails a policy of hedging, diversifying foreign partners and ambiguity. It keeps a country’s options open in shifting geopolitical environments in which today’s friend may become tomorrow’s foe.
And it works. Presidents Joe Biden, Xi Jinping, and Vladimir Putin visited Vietnam in a matter of months, which is a sign of how effective this policy is.
Bamboo diplomacy is especially useful for smaller nations who are in great power competition. And it shares some similarities with the active nonalignment theory that has been practiced in some Latin American and other countries recently.
Instead of the more defensive mentality that defined the nonalignment of the past, the strategy emphasizes the importance of agency and initiative in coping with uncertainty and a complex environment.
The last few years of Trong’s rule came as a result of an especially contentious period in international relations, which saw an increase in tensions between major powers, a devastating pandemie, and two significant wars, one in the Gaza Strip and one in Ukraine. But throughout, Vietnam managed to thrive and prosper.
It has done so for a variety of reasons. But there is no denying that Trong’s leadership and his skillful use of bamboo diplomacy contributed significantly to Vietnam’s success.
Jorge Heine is Interim Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, Boston University
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