The Foreign Service Journal, May 2005

China have deeply angered Kor- eans (in both the North and the South). Seeking to cool the sim- mering dispute, China dispatched diplomats and Politburo member Jia Qinglin to Seoul in August 2004, where they worked out an agreement to shelve the dispute. Although this agreement has tem- pered Korean ire for the time being, the imbroglio has raised suspicions among South Korean officials and intellectuals about China’s long-term intentions and has dampened the “China fever” that has swept their country in recent years. Despite this incident, the breadth and depth of the Chinese–South Korean relationship make it one of the healthiest and most important in Asia today. China and Vietnam. China’s relations with Vietnam have been similarly transformed, albeit not as dramatical- ly. Since China and Vietnam renormalized diplomatic relations in 1991, state-to-state, party-to-party and military ties have expanded. Meetings between the presidents and general secretaries of the two communist parties are held annually, as are about 100 working visits at the min- isterial or vice-ministerial levels. In February 1999 the two governments signed the Agreement on Friendship, Good Neighborliness and Longstanding Stability. Dur- ing a state visit to Hanoi by former Chinese President Jiang Zemin in February 2002, the two countries agreed to a framework that consists of the following four objec- tives: (1) to build political exchanges at a variety of levels; (2) to share their experiences regarding economic devel- opment; (3) to encourage youth exchanges (China created a 120,000 renminbi [or approximately $15,000] fund for this purpose); and (4) to strengthen cooperation in inter- national and regional forums. Sino-Vietnamese economic ties are also improving, although the total volume remains low. Bilateral trade tre- bled from $1.1 billion in 1996 to $3 billion in 2001, and reached $4.6 billion in 2003. Vietnam exports mainly marine products and oil and gas to China; imports from China include machinery, fertilizers, and consumer durables. China also provides low-interest loans to upgrade Chinese-built factories in Vietnam (mainly iron and steel plants). Altogether, China has invested $330 million in 320 joint venture projects in Vietnam. With respect to territorial disputes, tensions have eased considerably in recent years. The Chinese and Vietnamese govern- ments signed a treaty on their land border in December 1999 and another in December 2000 on their sea boundary in the Gulf of Tonkin. They have also estab- lished a forum to discuss the dis- puted Paracel and Spratly Islands. Both are signatories to the Code of Conduct on the South China Sea and the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, agreed in 2002 between China and ASEAN. Since relations between the Chinese Communist Party and Vietnamese Communist Party were normalized in 1991, the parties’ leaders have met once a year. China’s current president and CCP general secretary, Hu Jintao, visited Vietnam twice before assuming his leadership posts at the Sixteenth CCP Congress in 2002. In addition, the VCP External Relations Department and the CCP’s International Department have promoted numerous bilateral exchanges, as have the two central party schools. In recent years Chinese and Vietnamese ministers of defense, as well as lower-level military officials, have also exchanged visits. The People’s Liberation Army Chengdu and Guangzhou military region commanders and com- manders of adjacent military districts now hold annual meetings with their counterparts, the commanders of Vietnam’s first, second and third military regions. Staff college exchanges have also become more common. In 2001, a Chinese naval ship made its first port call to Vietnam. The Chinese and North Vietnamese navies are involved in joint search-and-rescue missions, and they cooperate in cross-border antismuggling operations. Although there is no formal agreement about prior notifi- cation of military exercises in the border region, both sides have nonetheless tried to provide such notice. ... China and India. Perhaps one of the most impor- tant, yet least recognized, international events of 2003 was Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s state visit to China in June. As the capstone of a decade-long rap- prochement, which was briefly interrupted by the politi- cal fallout in the aftermath of India’s nuclear tests in 1998, the visit symbolized one of the most critical developments in Asian affairs. At their meeting Prime Minister Vajpayee and Chinese Premier Wen signed the Declaration on Cooperation and F O C U S M A Y 2 0 0 5 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 35 The breadth and depth of the Chinese–South Korean relationship make it one of the healthiest and most important in Asia today.