Vietnam and China Building on Past Achievements, Writing New Chapter for the Future

At the invitations of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam To Lam and President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Luong Cuong, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping paid a state visit to Vietnam from April 14 to 15, 2025.

Vietnam’s Party General Secretary To Lam (L) and China’s Party General Secretary and President Xi Jinping review the guard of honor at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi, April 14, 2025

Deepening traditional relationship

The year 2025 marks the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and China (January 18, 1950 – 2025). During his visit to Vietnam, General Secretary and President Xi Jinping held talks with General Secretary To Lam and President Luong Cuong, and met with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man. In a sincere and friendly atmosphere, the two sides briefed each other on their respective Party and national situations, exchanged in-depth views, and reached important common understandings on deepening the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership and advancing the building of a Vietnam–China community with a shared future of strategic significance, alongside discussions on international and regional issues of mutual concern.

At their talks, General Secretary To Lam and General Secretary and President Xi Jinping agreed to strengthen substantive cooperation in various fields. Vietnam and China will establish a Railway Cooperation Committee to promote railway cooperation.

General Secretary To Lam proposed that the two sides enhance cooperation in digital transformation and science and technology to create a new “bright spot” in Vietnam–China relations. He called for stronger collaboration in key technological sectors, more balanced trade, higher-quality investment and effective implementation of major projects in Vietnam. He also emphasized the need to maintain strategic exchanges and deepen cooperation in core and regular areas such as diplomacy, defense and security; promote connectivity in strategic transport infrastructure; facilitate access to loans, technology transfer and human resource training; and make every effort to ensure the progress of the Lao Cai–Hanoi–Hai Phong Railway Project.

In the article on building on past achievements and making new advances in pursuit of shared goals, General Secretary and President Xi said that China and Vietnam are friendly socialist neighbors sharing the same ideals and extensive strategic interests. China is going all out to build a great modern socialist country and achieve the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation by pursuing Chinese modernization. Vietnam will usher in a new epoch of national development toward the two goals set for the centenary of the Party and the country respectively. China always gives Vietnam high priority in its neighborhood diplomacy.  “Our two countries should strengthen our efforts on all fronts to build the China-Vietnam community with a shared future, and contribute more to peace, stability, development and prosperity in Asia and the world at large,” General Secretary and President Xi Jinping affirmed.

In the "Vietnam-China Joint Statement on further deepening of the Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership and advancing the construction of a Vietnam-China Community with a shared future that carries strategic significance " dated April 15, 2025, politically, the two sides firmly promoted the cause of friendship, reaffirmed the need for supporting each other on the path to socialism in accordance with the situation of each country and determined the necessity of raising strategic trust to a higher level.

In substance, the two countries reaffirmed the need to make the pillar of defense and security cooperation more substantial, and agreed to consider China's development of new quality productive forces and Vietnam's development of new productive forces as opportunities to build a more comprehensive and extensive cooperation structure.

On this occasion, Vietnam and China signed 45 cooperation agreements in many fields between ministries, sectors and localities of the two countries, demonstrating the rich and comprehensive achievements that the two sides accomplished during this visit.

Among them, seven important documents regarding railways and roads were signed by Minister of Construction Tran Hong Minh with Chinese partners, including two government-level international treaties, two government-level agreements on ODA capital and three ministerial-level agreements.

Party General Secretary To Lam (first, right) and President Luong Cuong (third, right), and Party General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping (second, right) view a photo exhibition “75 years of Vietnam-China diplomatic relations”

Highlights in economic and trade cooperation

The highlight of the China-Vietnam bilateral relationship is economic and trade cooperation. China has been Vietnam's largest trading partner for over 20 years, starting from 2004. Vietnam is China's largest trading partner in ASEAN and China's fourth largest trading partner by nation.

According to data from the Import-Export Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, in 2024, two-way trade between Vietnam and China reached a record high of US$205.2 billion, an increase of US$33.3 billion compared to 2023. With this result, China became the first trading partner with which Vietnam has achieved a trade volume exceeding US$200 billion.

In the first three months of 2025, Vietnam-China bilateral trade value rose 17.46% year on year to US$51.25 billion. Vietnam's exports to China key products such as agricultural products (rice, coffee, cashew nuts and fruits), seafood, electronic components, apparels, rubber and crude oil. In particular, Vietnamese agricultural products have great advantages in the Chinese market thanks to geographical proximity and high consumer demand. Durian, dragon fruit, mango and passion fruit have established a solid position and continue to grow strongly. In 2024, durian export value to China exceeded US$3 billion following a surprising US$2.3 billion in 2023.

Vietnam imports machinery, industrial equipment, raw materials for production, consumer goods and electronic components from China. The diversity in the commodity structure between the two countries enables them to utilize each side's comparative advantages and contributes to the overall economic development.

On investment, Chinese companies have continuously increased their investment in Vietnam in recent years and now become major investment partners. As of the end of March 2025, Chinese investors registered to invest approximately US$32.2 billion in 5,351 valid projects, accounting for over 6.3% of the total registered foreign investment capital (US$510.5 billion) and ranking 6th out of 150 partners with valid investment projects in Vietnam. However, the average size of a Chinese-invested project is only about US$6 million, lower than the average foreign-invested project size of about US$12 million.

Chinese investors have invested in 19 out of 21 industries in Vietnam. The processing and manufacturing industry accounted for 80% of Chinese total investment capital with 2,890 projects. Many world-class giants have invested in new energy fields in Vietnam like manufacturing solar panels, silicon crystals, wind power, solar power, electricity storage, electric vehicles, electricity and electronics. In 2024, Chinese infrastructure investors and developers of railways, highways, seaports and airports also actively entered Vietnam to survey investment and business opportunities. The largest recipients of Chinese investment capital include Tay Ninh, Bac Giang, Binh Thuan, Binh Duong and Hai Phong.

Meanwhile, Vietnam invested US$40.8 million in 36 projects in China, mainly in trade, processing, manufacturing and logistics.

By Quynh Anh, Vietnam Business Forum