When I was in Vietnam, I thought a communist country was so different from a Capitalist country. After I had lived in the US for a few years, I saw some similarities such as government, business, etc. One time, I was watching Youtube to learn English, and I listened carefully to a speech by the renowned journalist Nate Thayer. In his speech, he emphasized that all communist countries were not the same, he elaborated that communist Cuba combined with Cuban culture produce a unique communist Cuba. The similarity applies to China, Vietnam, Laos, and North Korea. Based on my knowledge, his opinion was absolutely right.
Before Soviet and Eastern communist countries collapsed, we could see some differences between them. For example, a communist Yugoslavia ruled its country differently from the Soviet Union. For example, Yugoslavian citizens had more rights than Soviet citizens, it was friendly to Western countries. In the economy, Tito allowed small businesses to operate, and the country allowed to import and export to Western countries. This made Yugoslavia was prosperous than some Western countries at the time. Unfortunately, after Tito died Yugoslavia fell into a civil war and the consequence was Srebrenica Massacre.
Now I go back to the question: is Vietnam still a communist country? My answer is no. Let me give some examples to show my perspective. A real communist country often has a command economy that the government runs almost 100% like the Soviet Union and Cuba or North Korea, with one-party rule and all religions are strictly monitored. According to some sources, the average Vietnamese government contributes to the economy is 28% of the GDP. The average US government contributes to the economy is 25% of the GDP. Vietnam reformed its economy in 1986, this strategy is called the market economy. I guess Vietnam copied from China, and China copied from Yugoslavia. Now we examine the one-party rule. I read a social book, it emphasized that when you have a big group, inside the big group always has many sub-groups competing with one another to dominate the big group. For example, the Republican party always has many sub-groups competing to dominate the Republican party, the similarity applies to the Democrat party. You see in Vietnam right now, many sub-groups of the Vietnam Communist Party are fighting to dominate the party. I considered each sub-group to be one party, so Vietnam is not really one party. Now we look at freedom of religion. In Vietnam, citizens can practice any religion without restrictions according to the law. I see that the Vietnamese can go to church, or temple, as long as you don’t oppose or criticize the Vietnamese government, you are okay. What about freedom of speech, freedom of speech in Vietnam is more restricted in some political topics. You can see in Thailand, anyone who criticizes King may be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison. I think freedom of speech in Vietnam is way better than in China, North Korea, and Cuba. In many democratic countries, their citizens may have different levels of freedom of speech. I am lucky that I live in the US where freedom of speech is respected, but I don’t think freedom of speech can change society a lot. In Vietnam, you can access Google, YouTube, Facebook, etc. In another hand, the Chinese can’t access those social media legally.
Many people complained that the one-party rule caused widespread corruption. You can look at the transparency map below you can see Vietnam’s corruption is not worst than many democrat countries. Even though, Vietnam is still considered widespread corruption. My friend who lives in Vietnam told me that corruption in Vietnam is caused by culture. He observed and witnessed that many normal Vietnamese people take bribes to sell their good friends, relatives even people who helped them, including YouTubers who sell fans for money. You know that people who have powers are susceptible to corruption, but many normal Vietnamese people who have no power but they are also susceptible to corruption too. Vietnamese often complain about government corruption, they don’t look at themselves they are worst than the government, so they shouldn’t criticize others. I don’t label Vietnamese culture as bad. Vietnamese culture has many good aspects too, we just need to change some bad aspects. I live in the US, I see children always get the line in public such as schools, restaurants, etc. No one cut lines as many Vietnamese people do. Americans follow traffic laws strictly, they don’t litter in public such as throwing trash into rivers, canals, roads, etc.
I conclude that Vietnam is no longer a real communist country, it is a developing country that needs to change many things in order to become a developed country. It may take a long time to become South Korea or Japan. I think many developing countries will become developed countries, some countries may take longer than others. Developing countries have many social problems, the same as developed countries too. People should not expect developed countries to have fewer problems. Many people say that Vietnam is a communist country by name. In reality, it is a capitalist country like an old vase with new wine. When you look at Singapore, is considered a de facto one-party state like Vietnam, but it becomes a developed country because it has a unique culture like other developed countries. Before I immigrated to the US, I hated the Vietnamese government a lot. After I listened to Thayer’s speech, it opened my mind to see the problem with a new perspective.
I know many people after they read this post, may agree or against my perspective. I don’t care if you agree with me or not. If you like my perspective, please share. Thanks for reading.