Chinese Leader Visits Vietnam to Strengthen Sino-Vietnam Ties

  • 13 years ago
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Chinese leader Xi Jinping is on a two-day state visit to Vietnam seeking to improve Sino-Vietnam relations that have been strained by the ongoing South China Sea dispute.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping started a two-day official visit to Vietnam on Wednesday to repair and strengthen relations.

The 58-year-old Xi Jinping is expected to be the next Chinese regime top leader when Hu Jintao steps down at the end of next year. His visit is being seen as a barometer of his diplomatic abilities.

Xi visited the mausoleum of former communist leader Ho Chi Minh and held talks with various senior Vietnamese officials.

He met his counterpart, Nguyen Thi Doan, who said China and Vietnam would adopt mutual agreements to iron out differences.

Sino-Vietnam relations have been strained in recent months due to the Chinese regime's maritime aggression in the South China Sea territorial claims.

China, Vietnam and other neighboring countries all have competing claims on the South China Sea—believed to hold rich deposits of oil and gas.

Political science professor Edward Friedman from the University of Wisconsin-Madison says it's normal for Asian countries to have complex relations with China.

[Edward Friedman, Political Science Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison]:
"On the one hand, everyone wants to benefit from China's awesome economic rise. This will certainly include Vietnam. On the other hand, China has, since December 2008, been increasingly military assertive... this has most upset the government in Vietnam."

Friedman questions whether the Chinese regime is going to get Vietnam to back down its territorial and energy interests in the South China Sea dispute.

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