The impact of China on governance structures in Vietnam

Abstract

"This paper addresses the question as to how and to what degree the form of political order in Vietnam has been influenced by China. How and to what extent have Vietnam's governance structures been converged toward or diverged from the Chinese model of political organization and rule? Similarities of governance structures in Vietnam and China are primarily the result of analogy or the fact that both regimes have faced comparable challenges first with regard to their respective national revolutionary struggles and later the establishment and institutional fostering of communist rule, acted under similar conditions and pursued similar goals which have resulted in the part convergence of the two countries' political institutions, structures, and practices that occurred without the direct exercise of influence. The most prominent example of chasing analogous objectives certainly refers to the economic reform processes toward market systems and the integration in global economic structures without touching the main pillars of the respective political orders. Overall, the convergence of governance systems in Vietnam and China lies in principles and policy (the value system of reform) rather than in structures and polity. Vietnam's learning from China is more a 'path imitation' than 'model imitation'." (author's abstract)