China-Vietnam ties bloom, Hanoi still hedging

Pingxiang (China), Nov 9: Nearly 30 years ago, Chinese troops and tanks poured over the border near here to teach Vietnam ''a lesson'' after it invaded Cambodia to oust the genocidal but Beijing-friendly Khmer Rouge.

Today, it's televisions, coal, garlic and other Chinese goods that stream southward over the border from the erstwhile enemy that has become Vietnam's biggest trade partner.

In the 15 years since Beijing and Hanoi re-established diplomatic ties, the relationship has made a dramatic turn.

''Development in both Vietnam and China is going great, and so is their relationship,'' said Dao Thu Thuy, a plump Vietnamese woman who runs a 'pho' noodle soup shop in Pingxiang on the Chinese side of the border where she says changes are noticeable.

''People want to make money now. No one wants to fight or argue,'' she said.

The change in Beijing-Hanoi relations reflects a transformation in China's ties with Southeast Asia across the board, as it forges partnerships, broadens its influence in the region and diversifies its trade portfolio.

Beijing has stopped talking about China's ''peaceful rise'', fearing it sounds too threatening, and talks instead of ''peaceful development''.

Last week, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao hosted a summit with leaders from the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, marking 15 years of dialogue with backslapping self-congratulation.

Despite the smiles, though, political analysts say wariness of China's rising influence has not been completely displaced by confidence in the opportunities it may offer.

''ASEAN countries have adopted the dual strategy of engagement and hedging to protect their interests in the face of a rising China,'' Jing-dong Yuan wrote in a paper last month for the Strategic Studies Institute of the US Army War College.

Vietnam is far from an exception.

FORGETTING HISTORY

A few kilometres (miles) from Dao's restaurant, is the Nanshan Martyrs' Cemetery where 640 Chinese soldiers are buried. They died in February and March 1979, when fighting between Vietnam and China was at its fiercest, according to their tombstones. Only a handful of people visit the cemetery every day, leaving behind bouquets, burnt joss sticks and shredded red paper from exploded firecrackers.

Mostly, though, Nanshan is a silent memorial to an era that is quickly being forgotten.

Most of the points of friction in China-Vietnam relations have been removed. For instance, the two countries have agreed to finish demarcating their long-contested land border in 2008.

''The past is the past,'' said Li Bao, a minibus driver who ferries passengers and cargo to and from the border with Vietnam.

''We're friends now.'' The sentiment is shared across the border, but only to a point.

If history has taught the Vietnamese anything it is that its giant neighbour to the north should be treated with caution.

History is dotted with wars between China and Vietnam and some of Vietnam's best-known legends are about heroes who drove off Chinese invaders.

''It's tyranny of geography,'' said Carlyle Thayer, a defence analyst and Vietnam expert at the University of New South Wales.

BALANCING MAJOR POWERS

As a small country living in the shadow of a giant, Vietnam's policy-makers have concluded the best way to survive is to balance one strong power with another.

In the post-Soviet era, that means burnishing ties with the United States and encouraging a US presence in the region.

''Slowly, you move a piece on the Chinese chessboard, and then you move a different piece on the American chessboard and hope that you've got a kind of balance,'' Thayer said.

While burying historic grudges has brought Sino-Vietnamese ties a long way, potential conflicts still exist, the most prominent of which is over competing claims to the potentially oil-rich Spratly Islands archipelago.

In 1988, more than 70 Vietnamese sailors died after a naval clash with China in the area.

China, Vietnam and others signed a declaration on the conduct of parties in the South China Sea in 2003. But Hanoi isn't taking chances.

Hanoi has been arming its fighter planes with beyond-visual-range air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles. It is buying cruise missiles for its Russian-made ships and has shown interest in acquiring a submarine.

''To the extent that they modernise their military, it's all aimed basically at South China Sea contingencies,'' Thayer said.

REUTERS