Vietnam isn’t some innocent pawn... it may be in the strati interests of Vietnam to not be in line with China.
Vietnam can have its own opinion on anything. But it will never, under any circumstances, consider America's opinion to be more important than China's. Trying to bring that situation about is no better than pouring money into a hole. Thinking you can do this means you're very, very bad at your job.
These statements about Vietnam are out of context entirely.
We should be 'confused' that one would think 'the US should care more about the US than China' ... because that statement doesn't make any sense.
Vietnam 'cares' about other nations to the extent they have power, and that it affects them.
Nations in China's vicinity are very concerned about China's new Imperial ambitions, and it's been that way for centuries.
America et. al. are concerned about China's influence in neighbouring states.
The TPP is designed to provide economic synergy between those directly in the vicinity of China with the US + Canada + Australia so as to provide an economic basis and some degree of influence outside the direct purview of China.
In an interconnected world, small states are all in the orbit if larger states, it's as unavoidable as gravity.
Vietnam specifically is relatively small and weak, in order to gain leverage, they have to work with others with similar concerns i.e. Singapore, S. Korea, and having the US + Canada as a participant is a major bonus.
Vietnam was absolutely a willing and supportive proponent of the TPP for those reasons.
The 'deal killer' was not any Asian country, it was Trump, who foolishly thought it would be more advantageous for the US to deal with APAC States individually thereby gaining no leverage. While this would be true for individual trade concerns, it's completely short sighted vis-a-vis the bigger picture.
Would it be possible for a state department to aim for a world in which Israel cares more about America's opinion than the other regional powers, such as Iran or Saudi Arabia?
Can you really not think of any other examples where a smaller country might not think, "the adversary of my adversary is my friend"?
I don't really get what you are saying here though. I don't buy that US control over Taiwan is slipping, but even claiming that suggests your original point about Vietnam is wrong.
This is just equivocating. I can use "Taiwan" and "China" to refer to different states regardless of whether Taiwan sometimes uses analogous terms to refer to the same thing. Not only do I know what I mean, I know that you know what I mean.
And yes, Taiwan is moving in the direction of closer ties to China.
Yes, which is why I also addressed your post without making use of that.
>And yes, Taiwan is moving in the direction of closer ties to China.
The US is currently increasing it's military budget to "prevent Chinese invasion of Taiwan" so I don't really agree with that. Even disagreeing there means they cared more about the US than China for the past sixty years.
Yeah, I don't dispute that. I would say they care more now, too. But they're shifting. And Taiwan is the absolute best case for a regional power looking somewhere other than China.
>Vietnam can have its own opinion on anything. But it will never, under any circumstances, consider America's opinion to be more important than China's.
Cessation of active hostilities would see attitudes swinging back the other way, even against a background of passive hostilities, as we see in Taiwan.