It's as thought the concept of “playing nice” was not just foreign to them, but temperamentally impossible for them to comprehend. That old adage about getting more flies with honey than vinegar never seems to have occurred to them.
And they're supposed to be such a brilliant people.
So the Chicoms are doing in the region what Japan did to them in the 1930’s with the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere”, which is mercantilism & militarism combined.
No discussion yet about Vietnamese hatred for China which goes back thousands of years. For a thousand years Vietnam was a conquered province of the Han Chinese Empire, and it has been over a thousand years since the Vietnamese regained their independence from China, and that is as yet fresh in the collective memory of Vietnam.
Heard this while I was in Vietnam: while Ho Chi Minh & his Viet Minh were fighting the French after WWII, they received an offer of massive military aid from the newly established Communist Chinese regime of Mao Tse-tung.
His top general Vo Nguyen Giap recommended accepting the aid at once as it would tip the balance militarily. Ho Chi Minh exploded in anger:
“Are you out of your mind!!? I would rather smell French s*** for the next ten years than smell Chinese s*** for the next one thousand years!!”
One party systems need external conflict to distract and contain the disaffected masses. If Dong Sixpack isn’t seething with nationalist rage against Japanese soldiers from 70 years ago, or those pesky Vietnamese, Philippinos, etc., he might just look around and wonder what the Party has done for him lately. Can’t have that.