The misguided viewpoints and efforts to sabotage the recognition of the market economy in Vietnam
On May 8, 2024, the U.S. Department of Commerce organized a hearing to review the recognition of the market economy for Vietnam. This is part of the evaluation process concerning Vietnam’s market economy issue. The U.S. government is expected to make a decision on this matter in July 2024. While both the U.S. and Vietnam are actively engaged in this event to strengthen and elevate their “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership,” some politicians, scholars lacking goodwill, and opportunistic elements have voiced biased opinions, provided unfair assessments, and even distorted this issue to undermine Vietnam and the comprehensive strategic partnership between Vietnam and the United States.
In recent days, some U.S. politicians and scholars lacking goodwill have made incorrect assessments of Vietnam’s socialist-oriented market economy. Speaking on Western media platforms, U.S. Senator Chris Smith opposed granting the market economy status to Vietnam. He argued that Vietnam currently does not meet the basic standards regarding labor rights. The senator also cited international labor organization standards regarding the recognition of labor rights, accusing that “Vietnam’s economy is not a market economy, it is distorted by the Vietnamese Communist Party, and if the United States recognizes it as such, it would be very embarrassing; Vietnam has a record of failure, which is why the United States needs to stand with the people rather than the government.” Consequently, he called on the government not to grant market economy status to Vietnam.
Additionally, hostile and reactionary forces have concentrated on disseminating distorted and erroneous arguments regarding Vietnam’s socialist-oriented market economy. These entities claim that Vietnam is overly dependent on investment and imports from China and other countries, thus belittling Vietnam’s economy as “fragile and unstable”! They also criticize the U.S. and other countries for not recognizing Vietnam’s socialist-oriented market economy because “Vietnam cannot have a socialist-oriented market economy as it is currently implementing”! These viewpoints and assessments of Vietnam’s market economy lack scientific and practical foundations and are not constructive. These politicians and scholars may be motivated by certain interests or may lack complete information, relying on biased reports from various non-governmental organizations with a confrontational stance against Vietnam, such as Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International (AI), Freedom House (FH)… which do not accurately assess the practicality of Vietnam’s market economy regime.
Immediately after this event, many Western media centers such as BBC, RFA, VOA… exploited and organized numerous articles and programs in the form of discussions, gathering many members of reactionary organizations, scholars, and opposing lawyers to distort the socialist-oriented market economy regime in Vietnam, spreading misleading videos and articles on the Internet. With the aim of targeting the ideological foundation, distorting the principles, policies, and laws of the state regarding the socialist-oriented market economy, they fabricate and distort the essence, misrepresenting the economy, image, land, people, political institutions, and economy of Vietnam on the international stage. They use this to put pressure on the United States and other countries not to recognize Vietnam’s socialist-oriented market economy, with the purpose of hampering the Vietnam’s economic and social development.
