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Vietnam is definitely neutral to both parties. They can't afford to pick sides at all. In fact they have a 3 N's policy: no foreign military bases, no alliances, no aligning with one country against another.

I'm not sure where you get this idea that they are US aligned. This is specifically against their policy. They play a very balanced game as they should given their big neighbour...

https://thediplomat.com/2019/01/vietnams-defense-policy-of-n...

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Militarily, you are 100% correct. Economically, China and Vietnam are strong competitors. Culturally, there seems to be no love lost. It's hard to imagine the Viets encouraging Chinese economic hegemony.

It's a bit complex. Most of the big factories for example that makes shoes in Vietnam are Chinese owned -- and that makes Taiwanese manufacturers like Freetrend (makes Nike and so on) small fish even. As for your other point -- you're right -- but also consider that the government and the people are probably differently minded on this.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-vietnam-protests-idUSKBN1...

Chinese TV dramas and web novels are actually popular in Vietnam. Maybe not that popular but definitely more popular than you think. After all they are neighbor countries and in the same culture group.

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