China-US Strategic Competition in the Lower Mekong Region and Vietnam’s Position

Abstract

Recently, both China and the United States of America (US) have started focusing more on settling influence in the Lower Mekong region in the general context of global China-US competition. Although they have different connecting approaches, both superpowers focus on establishing and maintaining their influence in the strategic geo-political area in Southeast Asia and Asia. Their activities in the Lower Mekong region are more noticeable since the 2010s when Xi Jinping came to power in China and the US conducted the “Pivot to Asia” and “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” policies. Their competition therefore raises difficult tasks for Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam (CLMTV) to keep neutrality, and protect their national sovereignty and the regional sustainable development. As the China-US competition in the Lower Mekong region is remarkable and profoundly influential to the development of regional countries, both academic scholars and policy makers pay attention to this subject. This paper focuses on evaluating the recent competition between China and the US in CLMTV and Vietnam’s adaptations to maintain its sovereignty, security and neutrality in the great-power competition, especially since Vietnam established a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with both China (2008) and the US (2023).