Vietnam’s cost advantage and dependence on Chinese parts are strengthening ties with Beijing, even with US tariffs
In Vietnam’s northern manufacturing belt, tariff angst isn’t stopping the flow of Chinese money. If anything, it’s growing.
From a Chinese circuit board maker’s eager calls for workers, to construction crews rushing to finish a new plant for a Shenzhen producer of gaming parts, the electronics hub of Bac Ninh province just east of Hanoi is buzzing with Chinese activity. So much so that provincial officials expect to rubber-stamp US$1 billion in new investment licences – many of them Chinese.
These optics may seem unusual amid a geopolitical trade spat. Just months ago, the rhetoric from hawks in US President Donald Trump’s administration had been clear: global producers like Vietnam must rely less on China’s supply chain or risk even higher American tariffs. Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro took to Fox News in April and described Vietnam as “essentially a colony of communist China”.
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