| Summary/Abstract |
In this essay, an attempt is made to use Alexander Wendt’s structural hypothesis to test
the structures of Vietnam–China relations from the beginning up to the present. The
results show that Vietnam–China relations have undergone three cultures: Hobbesian
culture, Lockean culture, and Kantian culture. In 113 B.C, without any restraint, the
expansionist identity of China formed Vietnam–China Hobbesian culture and then
nourished it up to the late twelfth century. Then, the external restraints changed
Vietnam–China Hobbesian culture into the Lockean culture in 1164. There was an
alternation of Hobbesian and Lockean culture in the period of 1164–1885. The
transitions of these two cultures were created by external restraint and self-restraint.
In the period of 1885–1949, the foundations for the Kantian culture was laid. From
1950 to July 1978, Communist ideology helped the Kantian culture to dominate
Vietnam–China relations. Though, from 1968 self-interests created a shift from Kantian
culture to Lockean culture. Without self-restraint, the identities of Vietnam and China
changed the Kantian culture into the Lockean culture in late 1978, and this culture has
been dominating Vietnam–China relations up to the present.
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