External Coercion, Internal Accommodation: China's Wedge Strategies Towards the Vietnam-United States Partnership, 2013–2022.

To what end is China's Vietnam policy? As a rising power, China has sought to drive a wedge into the U.S.-Vietnam Comprehensive Partnership to prevent Washington from using Vietnam as a platform to challenge China's influence. How then did China drive a wedge? China coerced Vietnam's external security via the use of force and accommodated Vietnam's internal security via political and economic cooperation. China wanted to show Vietnam it cannot trust the U.S. protection and Vietnam benefits more from a friendly China-Vietnam relationship. China aimed to reinforce Vietnam's neutrality amid increasing Chinese assertive behaviors against Vietnam at sea. This paper traces China's actions and reactions to major diplomatic events in U.S.-Vietnam and China-Vietnam relations from 2013 to 2022 to study China's wedge strategies targeting Vietnam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]