The Soft Power Impact of China in Strategic Competition With the United States in Vietnam

Abstract

In the context of increasing strategic competition between the United States (US) and China in the Indo-Pacific region, soft power has become an important tool in implementing foreign policy, enhancing the overall national power, especially for emerging superpowers like China. To achieve the goal of becoming a global superpower comparable to the US, China has focused on increasing its soft power in countries with important geopolitical positions on the regional and global map. Accordingly, Vietnam is China's neighboring country with a strategic position for China's process of expanding its power in Southeast Asia. Therefore, Vietnam is one of the countries most strongly affected by China's strategy to increase its soft power in strategic competition with the US. This chapter aims to analyze the opportunities and challenges that China's strategy to increase its soft power brings to Vietnam through political-diplomatic, economic-commercial, cultural educational fields.