Vietnam has shared a border with a cumbersome northern neighbor since the beginning of its existence. Throughout this country’s history, China has sometimes been a threat, sometimes a source of influence, and most of the time, both at once. Within this ambiguous relationship, the last 40 years have unveiled the following path for the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP), keeping this omnipresent neighbor at arm’s length while drawing inspiration from it. From a Western perspective, the hope for openness in China during the 1980s has been in parallel with the Đổi Mới (1986) reforms in Vietnam.

However, international observers and local human rights activists have been disappointed to notice that economic liberalization has not promoted democratic values, press freedom, and an independent civil society. Indeed, we can see that political freedom and human rights have not developed despite China and Vietnam having opened to a market economy.