U.S.-Vietnam agreement: Hanoi’s major transformation as part of a strategy to shift the balance of power in Southeast Asia

The start of 2025 marked the intensification of a systemic U.S. strategy aimed at simultaneously overloading China’s resources and capabilities across multiple strategic fronts.

The administration of Donald Trump, implementing the principle of “selective overmatch,” significantly increased economic and tariff pressure on Beijing, reorganized regional supply chains, and revived the doctrine of “containment through co-development.”

A central component of this strategy was the engagement of Vietnam — a promising “anti-China gateway” in terms of Indo-Pacific security and industrial production.

Given China’s loss of influence in regions that have long served as strongholds of the authoritarian axis (notably Syria and Iran), elevating Vietnam’s role delivers a particularly painful blow to Beijing, disrupting the balance in regions previously considered zones of exclusive Chinese dominance.