When U.S. President Barack Obama arrives in Vietnam, he’ll witness a young country that presents many contradictions. The ruling Communist Party has cautiously allowed independent candidates to seek candidacies for seats in the National Assembly, the country’s legislature. Yet those independent candidates never advanced to the ballot provided to the public. State-owned companies in the communist country are making room for a more open economic policy. And while poverty has declined over the years, thanks to the “doi moi” economic policy begun in the 1980s, the gap between the urban affluent and rural poor is startling.
Amid the contrasts, speculation will be high on Obama’s visit to the Southeast Asian country, only the third such trip by a U.S. president since the end of the Vietnam War. Obama’s trip itself will be the primary headline.
[READ: Learn more about Vietnam]
“I’m keeping low expectations,” says Michael Kugelman, a senior program associate for South and Southeast Asia for the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. “I don’t think it (Obama’s visit) will achieve milestone agreements.”
Both countries represent important relationships to each other. In Vietnam, the U.S. sees an important source for its exports, investment opportunities in a rapidly growing economy and a growing strategic partner in the region. Vietnam, in turn, sees the U.S. as a partner to advance its economic development and as a source security against China.
The U.S. war in Vietnam frames the two nations’ relationship with each other, even after diplomatic relations were normalized in 1995. But the themes driving Obama’s visit to the country will derive less from the past and more from today’s pressing anxieties over China’s regional ambitions. Beijing’s activities in the area include oil and fishery exploration in the sea and dredging, occupying and building on island groups in order to serve as territorial claims. Those claims have become an increasing point of contention with the U.S., Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries, including the Philippines and Malaysia. Vietnam claims both the Paracel and Spratly Islands, counter to China’s activities.
[ANALYSIS: U.S., China, court Vietnam]
Obama is considering whether to ease a partial arms embargo on Vietnam, a vestige of the war between the two nations. For the White House, taking such action means balancing worries it and several Asian nations have over China’s expansion against longstanding U.S. concerns over Vietnam’s human rights record. The country’s treatment of political prisoners, activists and proponents of moves to democratic governance has drawn international criticism and calls for reform. Rights groups such as Freedom House note that Vietnam’s government tightly restricts all forms of basic human rights.
In its report on Vietnam, Human Rights Watch cited a wide range of rights abuses in the country, including the intimidation of rights activists, police use of torture, inadequate compensation farmers for property seized for development and a lack of independent labor unions.
Vietnam is a comparatively young population and its population is increasingly digitally engaged. About half of Vietnam’s population of 94 million has access to the Internet, and more than a third has access to social media, including Facebook. Yet the media is one of the most tightly controlled areas of Vietnamese life. The organization Reporters Without Borders, which ranks Vietnam 175th out of 180 countries and territories assessed over press freedom, criticizes the country for cultivating an environment that the group says cracks down on citizen journalists.
The United States is the largest export market for Vietnam and Human Rights Watch has urged the U.S. and other countries to use their economic influence to press for more reforms. Changes in the domestic climate, however, won’t come quickly in Vietnam, considered one of the most authoritarian countries in the region.
What Obama says about human rights will send an important message that could set the tone for his visit. De-emphasizing rights may signal to the Vietnamese that the U.S. is less concerned about how Vietnam’s citizens are treated.
“Washington will want to strike a balance in engaging the Vietnamese,” Kugelman says. “The challenge will be finding that happy medium.”
More from U.S. News
U.S. Can Play Role in Improving Vietnam’s Governance
U.S., China Locked in Contest to Earn Vietnam’s Favor
Vietnam’s Contrasts Will Confront Obama originally appeared on usnews.com
