Vietnam

The central government in Beijing made up its mind very early on that the ongoing mess in Hong Kong is fuelled to a large extent by “foreign interference,” something to which the Chinese are particularly sensitive, given the nation’s near-capitulation to foreign powers from the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries. Informed by a toxic mix of resentment for past humiliations and pride in recent achievements, many mainland Chinese belligerently view the developed world as conspiring to deny their country its rightful place in the sun.  However, in constructing the narrative of itself as a victim of foreign aggression and interference in modern times, China may do well to remember that it has, on

Vietnam has gained most from the shift in supply chains triggered by a nearly year-long trade war between China and the United States, according to a report by Japanese investment bank Nomura. The bank studied trade data for the world’s 50 biggest economies, spanning from the first quarter of 2018 to the first three months of 2019, to gauge the extent of trade diversions – the redirection of goods to avoid paying duties. Trade diversions by importers from the US and China have resulted in a boost to Vietnam’s economy of almost 8%. The majority of Vietnam’s gains came from additional imports of goods covered by US tariffs on China, mainly electronic apparatus for telephones, furniture, and au

It was 8pm on a scorching summer night when Tien, a quiet, timid teenager, left her home in a coastal province of central Vietnam to spend the night at her cousin’s. Or at least, that’s what the 16-year-old had told her family. In fact, she planned to leave the village to escape the pressure on her to get married. Hoping her cousin would help her find a job, she slipped out the door. It was nearly two years before she would return, by then having endured horrors beyond the imagination of most teenagers. The cousin she had trusted, rather than finding her a job, had sold her to a human trafficking broker in China who resold her as a bride. Tien became part of a depressing new statistic: the g

A man has reportedly been detained in eastern China after allegedly trafficking women from Vietnam for marriage. The man, surnamed Hu, was spotted by police on a train last Thursday as he travelled with six Vietnamese women from Guangxi, a province in southwest China that borders Vietnam, to his hometown in the eastern province of Jiangxi, according to the Nanchang Evening News. Unable to find wives at home, Chinese bachelors from poor, rural areas of the country are increasingly looking to purchase women from Southeast Asia for marriage. More than a decade ago, they would have been trafficking women from poorer provinces in China itself.   One woman, identified as “Tao”, had agreed to marr

For the first time since the end of the war, a US aircraft carrier is visiting Vietnam. Here's why. Video by Zoe Chen