Among the many neighboring countries in my country, Vietnam is a very special existence . This particularity is not only related to its historical development, but also to its future direction.
As a country within the East Asian cultural circle, Vietnam has been influenced by Chinese culture in all aspects of history. From historical culture to institutional reform, Vietnam has learned from our country for a long time.
But in modern times, Vietnam is determined to Westernize and adopts the Japanese approach to complete a big step towards the West. It learns from the Western reform and development model and comprehensively transforms the entire society.
Vietnam's reform and development have never stopped. The reform situation it faces, , has made many people compare it with with and .
Both South Korea and Ukraine learn from the West and thus reform to reform , but the endings of reforms between the two countries are completely different. One is heading for a high level of prosperity, while the other has experienced turmoil and decline.
So, is suitable for its own development as the Westernization path that Vietnam currently takes? Where will Vietnam's future go?
Figure丨Vietnam
Historical evolution process of Vietnam
Vietnam hundreds of years ago was always within China's control . Until 1885, after the end of the Sino-French War, France seized Vietnam's sovereignty from the Qing Dynasty, and later included Cambodian and Laos into the colonization.
Before that, Vietnam had been in a relatively stable situation, and the inheritance and development of culture had also been relatively stable. Like China, Vietnam also has a long history and has a splendid civilization.
was suddenly subjected to foreign colonial rule, and Vietnam suffered a heavy blow. This blow was not only in real life, but also in its own spiritual culture.
. China, which also has a historical background, has been suppressed by multiple forces, has made continuous efforts to resist and continue to explore, and finally established a new China.
Compared with China's self-reliance path of independent exploration and development, Vietnam is more of a passive waiting and the party being arranged.
pic丨New China
Vietnam itself does not have much ability to fight back. It was not until World War II ended, and the situation in Vietnam changed accordingly.
One of the important reasons is that Vietnam is a country with a small land area and population, and makes it difficult for it to have a foothold in the international community.
Vietnam also has a deep understanding of its national conditions. It is actively seeking to expand to its surrounding countries. continues to expand its coastline southward and seizes Mekong Delta from Cambodia.
Vietnam's outward expansion has not stopped. Wherever it can expand around , it will try to expand to form a stronger sphere of influence.
But from the map, we can see that the Indochina Peninsula , which Vietnam is located, is very narrow. No matter how much it makes , it is always limited to expand its land area.
Figure丨Vietnam
This determines Vietnam's development model. It cannot be fully realized by expanding its territory. It must seek the direction of development within itself.
Later, in the face of the colonial rule of the French invaders, Vietnam's development process was completely dominated by France, and this was the beginning of Vietnam's move closer to the West.
If the approach at this time is a passive choice, then afterwards, the United States' entry into really affected Vietnam's decision.
After World War II, Japan launched an attack on many Asian countries, and Vietnam was not spared. Therefore, while Vietnam was invaded by French colonial invasion, it was also forcibly invaded by Japanese imperialism, and was hit by both sides.
When the United States entered the Pacific War , it continued to expand its power in Asia while attacking Japan's power. At this time, the United States chose to support a person named Ho Chi Minh in Asia.
Picture丨Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh is the leader of the Indochina Communist Party. According to common sense, he should have had a good relationship with the Soviet Union. However, because he is even more a nationalist, he is unwilling to interfere in his own domestic affairs, so he cannot be optimistic about Stalin .
In the process of resisting French colonial rule, Ho Chi Minh formed a relatively close relationship with our country.
In the process of opposing Japanese imperialism, the United States is willing to provide Ho Chi Minh with advanced weapons and equipment, and even direct financial support. makes Ho Chi Minh naturally prefer the former between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Before Japan surrendered to , Ho Chi Minh launched the so-called August Revolution , established Democratic Republic of Vietnam , known in history as North Vietnam , trying to learn the path of the United States on this land through a break with South Vietnam .
But the United States did not intend to fully support North Vietnam at all. On the contrary, the strength of North Vietnam would pose a threat to it, so the United States secretly condoned the French colonists' offensive against Vietnam.
North Vietnam suddenly lost its support, Under this circumstance, Ho Chi Minh came to China again, busy fighting against France.
Picture丨Vietnam
After Stalin's death, The Soviet Union's attitude towards Vietnam changed . In order to prevent the entire Indochina Peninsula from becoming the sphere of influence of the United States, the Soviet Union provided great assistance to North Vietnam, and Ho Chi Minh also interrupted the path toward the West.
After Ho Chi Minh's death, The North Vietnam government directly defected to the Soviet Union and unified Vietnam with the support of the Soviet Union. Due to the deterioration of Sino-Soviet relations at that time, Vietnam also tried to repeatedly invade the territory of our southern country with the support of the Soviet Union.
Therefore, with its mighty and powerful military strength, our country launched the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam. . The defeated Vietnam had to give up and invade our territory to the north.
1986, Le Duan died, and the new Vietnamese government began the era of "innovation and opening up". Because Vietnam's history, culture and customs are similar to that of our country, and our country has experience in reform, it became the object of Vietnam's learning.
Vietnam's reform goals at this time were also established in accordance with my country's development model, that is, through innovations in all aspects, and the expansion of opening up to the outside world, in order to achieve common prosperity.
Picture丨Vietnam
Can Vietnam learn from Japan be successful
Vietnam originally learned from our country like this, and domestic reforms have also achieved a series of results. The whole process was very stable, but as I learned, Vietnam suddenly saw that some new changes have occurred in the international situation.
It turns out that after decades of recovery and restoration and maintenance after World War II, Japan's comprehensive national strength has been improved. In the view of Vietnam, it is in East Asia with Japan and is very similar in culture.
Compared with China, Vietnam's territory is closer to Japan, so Japan's development model should be more suitable for Vietnam , and China is too large to be copied completely.
More importantly, as both Asian countries, the " leaving Asia and entering Europe" adopted by Japan has achieved a huge victory and even entered the ranks of imperialism.
Thus, Vietnam changed its original path of learning from China and instead adopted a similar approach to Japan. tried to continuously learn from Western countries .
Figure丨Japan
To this day, Vietnam's reform and attempts are still on the way, but we can analyze it, can really fit the road in Japan?
First of all, in terms of the geographical environment of the two countries, although has a similar land area, there are actually great differences between the two countries.
As we all know, Japan is an island country, which gives it a relatively independent development environment and also gains a safer space. More importantly, the vast ocean gives it huge development opportunities.
But in contrast, although Vietnam once tried to seize islands and reefs in South China Sea , the outcome was very miserable. it failed to expand its maritime power as it wished.
In terms of historical development background, although Japan paid a heavy price during World War II, Japan's re-strength after the war was by no means unfounded.
itself has a deep technical foundation . Although this faced heavy blows from the war, it quickly developed after the war and became a very important economic pillar of Japan.
pic丨Japan
On the other hand, what is very important is the attitude of the United States . The United States gave Japan economic assistance after the war. At the same time, Japan also caught up with the industrial transfer of developed countries, thus quickly achieving economic revival.
But Vietnam missed development opportunities one after another and even suffered a continuous blow. was first colonized by France for a long time, and then the impact of World War II. After the war, it experienced the War Against France, the War Against the United States and the Sino-Vietnam War.
In this way, Vietnam's development foundation is the weak . It does not have a deep development foundation. Instead, it has continuously reduced its own strength in succession of wars. Compared with Japan,
, an important reason is that is that it does not receive assistance from the United States.
Compared with Japan after World War II, it faces the separate support of the United States . Although Vietnam won the war against the United States, it could not get further help from the United States.
In fact, compared with Japan, the international situation of Vietnam is closer to South Korea or Ukraine.
pic丨Vietnam and the United States
The situation faced by South Korea is directly caused by The US-Soviet battle for hegemony . The Korean Peninsula split, resulting in North Korea and South Korea. The two countries also tried to unify through war, but in the end it was not realized.
After the Korean War , South Korea's economy also received great rise in . On the one hand, it also received financial support from the United States and the support of South Korean chaebols. In addition, it is also the result of South Korea's active development of the outward-oriented economy .
But compared with South Korea's development of many technology industries, it can obtain huge profits of . Vietnam's development is just absorbing and digesting the low-end industries of foreign countries . This development makes it unable to obtain too much profit.
, and Vietnam's current industry chain is not complete enough. , especially the lag behind in the mid-to-high-end industries, makes Vietnam unable to occupy a dominant position in the international market.
With the continuous development of technology, Vietnam's demographic dividend is also gradually reducing . Advanced technology may replace the demand for cheap populations, and with the general advancement of international technology, this alternative is becoming more and more obvious.
Picture丨Vietnam
Ukraine is bounded by Dnieper River , facing Russia and Europe. The two completely different development situations of are directly opposite.
In Vietnam, the most painful problem of is the tearing of the north and south . France's long-term rule over Vietnam has made the difference between the north and south of Vietnam very significant, and has also laid the root of disaster for the contradictions between the north and south of Vietnam.
This is because although Vietnam has achieved unity, it has been completely different in history. ideology . South is the capitalist path supported by Western powers, while North is the socialist path.
If one side has particularly strong strength, it may also achieve complete unity of the country with strength. But in fact, has the same strength as the north and south, so it is evenly matched.
Therefore, the situation in Vietnam is very delicate. In order to balance the power of the two places at the same time, Vietnam has launched a complete set of " Prime Minister of the South, Secretary of the North, and Chairman of the Central Committee", which is a parallel development model of three carriages.
pic丨Ukraine
Later, as Vietnam continued to learn from the West, the power in the South continued to rise and became the main force in the country. also affected the development of Vietnam's international relations.
The rise of the south, made the former hostile state of Vietnam and the United States change , and the two countries became very close.
But at the same time, 's external action will undoubtedly deepen the existing conflict between the north and the south . However, no matter how the South develops, Vietnam's development cannot ignore the northern region , otherwise, the country may face division.
And by that time, the domestic situation in will become very serious. Not only will the overall strength be reduced, but it may also be interfered and provoked by other countries.
In order to appease the northern region, Vietnam still adheres to the socialist path in politics, and in economic terms, it vigorously implements the focus measures to learn from the West in the name of development.
Picture丨Vietnam
However, in this pulling form, Vietnam has not gained its ideal international status. In fact, Vietnam's position in the international market, is more of a passive attitude without much autonomy.
It can be said that Vietnam has suffered a lot of restraints in the road closer to the West. Western countries have formulated a series of cooperation treaties such as the Vietnam-EU Free Trade Zone Agreement.
But with it, is a series of political conditions , requiring the implementation of improved human rights and political methods in accordance with the Western model.
Western countries obviously need to intervene in Vietnam's domestic political development, but Vietnam has to agree to these conditions, and implements corresponding reforms to the political system.
Vietnam is undoubtedly walking a tightrope for doing this. On the one hand, it is a threat from Western countries, and on the other hand, it is a contradiction between the north and the south of the country. If you go too far on the road of westernization, it may cause unpredictable disasters.
pictures丨Vietnam and the United States
Where will Vietnam go in the future?
The various reform measures in Vietnam today, coupled with the changes in the international situation, seem to confirm that Vietnam is gradually deviating from the development direction of socialism and gradually moving towards a comprehensive westernization.
It is important to say which capitalist country Vietnam learns specifically. does not seem to be completely fixed . Outside the path of socialism, there are various capitalist factors, all intertwined in Vietnam.
Vietnam has indeed ushered in some new development opportunities now, which is inseparable from the reform measures it has implemented. A large amount of foreign capital has poured into Vietnam, making Vietnam increasingly part of the world market.
With the help of cheap labor and land resources, many countries and capital have invested in building factories in Vietnam. The industrialization here is still in a stage of rapid development. Vietnam like
has taken over China's industrial transfer to a certain extent. Many companies that once chose to invest in and build factories in China, has turned to other countries due to the rise in China's labor and land prices.
Figure丨Vietnam
This has enabled Vietnam, which is in reform, to obtain good development opportunities. As of now, Vietnam's economic development speed is around 5%, which is already a very good achievement for a developing country.
But we cannot make a comprehensive affirmation of Vietnam's development model because of the development achievements currently presented. After all, the reform of does not only care about the present, but needs to consider whether a longer-term development is feasible.
Vietnam has also noticed that some discordant ideological elements currently exist, such as land privatization and universal suffrage for officials, and are all typical characteristics of capitalist countries.
Does this mean that Vietnam has completely betrayed the previous socialist path? But if it does, can really have enough development power and overcome all the problems it faces?
Picture丨Vietnam
After all, combined with Vietnam's development history, cannot reach the level of being fully adapted to capitalist countries . If it suddenly changes its entire path, it is likely to cause some unexpected " crash ".
No matter what system it adopts, when facing reform, the first thing you consider is that the model is the most advanced, and is which model is most suitable for its own development.
North Korea's move towards reform is an inevitable choice for its historical development. is an inevitable choice for national development and people's prosperity. is also a choice that must be made in today's international situation.
However, the degree of reform of is to be carefully considered . Vietnam has experienced the successive occupation of many countries, but it is difficult for the entire country to truly achieve unity in history, which is inseparable from its geographical environment.
Vietnam is long in the north and south, while east and west are narrow. This land shape makes it difficult for the north and south to achieve unity.
Figure丨Vietnam
Today, the problem of the development gap between the north and the south of is still a problem that it needs to face , which threatens the sustainable development and even the issue of unification in Vietnam.
reform requires new strategies, but the various ways of capitalism work in the south. does not mean that it can achieve the same good results in the north.
Vietnam's socialist system , the reason why it can continue to be promoted is that it has received support from many people. has played a practical role in promoting the actual development process.
So, Vietnam cannot completely remove this part.
In addition, it should be pointed out that no matter how much Vietnam wants to Westernize, just like what Japan did at the time, is an absolute oriental country in terms of geographical location and historical culture.
pic丨Vietnam
Oriental elements contained in this country's bloodline cannot be eliminated , and the various historical traces it once learned from China cannot be completely erased.
Therefore, no matter how Vietnam chooses in the future, must face up to its national conditions and combine its own actual characteristics to make corresponding reforms and developments.
