Vietnam is moving closer to China’s governance model, tightening state control while adopting Chinese technology and regulation under To Lam. As China-friendly security figures gain influence in Hanoi, the country is leaning more openly toward Beijing despite a long history of mixed relations.
Lam will meet China’s leader Xi Jinping on Wednesday on his first overseas trip since becoming state president on April 7, a move that formally unites two of Vietnam’s most powerful roles, echoing Xi’s own concentration of authority and breaking from Vietnam’s traditional emphasis on collective leadership.
Vietnam is still hedging geopolitically, analysts say, keeping doors open to Washington and others. But at home, it is moving closer to China’s governance model – particularly control-driven regulation despite Western misgivings, underscoring how China’s influence is deepening as Lam reshapes the state.
Vietnam has “a dual approach of actively learning from the Chinese model while selectively resisting its influence,” said Nguyen Khac Giang, a visiting fellow at Singapore’s ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute.
Alexander Vuving of the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in the U.S., said that closer ties with China without adequate guardrails “will have a negative impact not only on Vietnam’s security, prosperity, and autonomy, but also on its relations with the U.S. and the West.”
Tech And Control
Vietnam has dropped concerns over Chinese 5G equipment, with firms pursuing deals and investments in cables and data centres linked to Chinese vendors.
Hanoi is also tightening state control over data, restricting cross-border transfers, and expanding AI-based surveillance, mirroring China’s model.
Modelling China’s Economy
The Vietnamese Communist Party is also advancing a more China-style economic model centred on subsidies, public investment and large infrastructure projects, sometimes in direct cooperation with Beijing on sensitive projects including high-speed rail links.
The shift has been reinforced by TikTok’s popularity in Vietnam, where positive narratives about China often dominate, and by Hanoi’s increasingly muted criticism of Beijing’s actions in the disputed South China Sea.
Vietnam remains more open to foreign investors but is growing closer to China, with rising Chinese investment and influence. It is adopting China-style financial policies, facing a similar property bubble, and considering state intervention in stock markets, including a stabilisation fund.
(With inputs from Reuters)
