Wayne Arnold, Vietnam Holds Its Own Within China's Vast Economic Shadow. New York Times, Dec. 22, 2010.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/22/business/global/22chinavietnam.html?scp=2&sq=arnold%20vietnam&st=cse
"Vietnam officially reopened its doors to foreign investors in 1986. But it did not really become part of the Asian economic boom until it won back its former enemy, the United States, which lifted a trade embargo in 1994 and normalized trade with Vietnam in 2000.
"The U.S. trade agreement provided special incentives to textile and garment makers, since it immediately cut U.S. tariffs on Vietnamese made brassieres and panties from roughly 60 percent to zero. Textile and garment makers from South Korea and Taiwan flocked to Vietnam to open new factories.
"Then China stumbled. Rampant technological piracy, nationalist demonstrations and shortages of skilled labor prompted many foreign companies, particularly Japanese, to move some production back to Southeast Asia.
Note:
(a) That was how Taiwan prospered. Taiwan had little industry during Japan's colonial rule (sugar, cement comes to mind, which were bombed out during World War II). When China fell to communism, Shanghai entrepreneurs moved textile equipment to Taiwan and started a new-fangled industry there. Low tariffs of Taiwanese goods into US were much more important than economic aids from US, to create prosperity in Taiwan.
(b) slipstream
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slipstream
(c) The report stated, "This year, Intel opened a new, $1 billion semiconductor factory near Ho Chi Minh City to replace facilities in Malaysia, the Philippines and China."
I have no idea what facilities in China the report referred to. Suffice it to say that the newly opened Dalian facility is not all it's cracks up to be.
(d) Despite tremendous gain, foreign direct investment to Vietnam--$9.58b in this report--paled against that to China ($90b, according to China's Ministry of Commerce)--both of 2009.
-----------------------------------Separately
美国抗议越南警察粗暴对待美外交官. BBC CHinese, Jan. 6, 2010.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/world/2011/01/110106_vietnam_us.shtml
Note:
(a) 麦钱特 Christian Marchant
(b) 阮文黎 Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly
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