The fourth example involves China's response to the 2014 anti–China/Chinese riots in Vietnam. This episode took place sixteen years after the anti–Chinese riots in Jakarta. By then, Xi Jinping had assumed the presidency of the PRC and had begun to adopt a more assertive foreign policy in the region, especially in the South China Sea, where China has a territorial dispute with Vietnam. The anti–China/Chinese riots of 2014 should be seen against this backdrop. Beijing was able to offer effective protection to its nationals, who were the victims of the riots. From China's foreign policy perspective, is this another example in which the interests of the Chinese overseas are paramount? Or can China's behaviour be explained in terms of its traditional foreign policy behaviour?

BACKGROUND

Vietnam was a vassal of China in ancient times although the Vietnamese people occasionally rebelled against continued domination by China. In the nineteenth century, Vietnam was colonized by France. After World War II a communist regime established itself in Hanoi in the north and started a war of national liberation against the French and their South Vietnamese allies (the First Indochina War). The United States took over as patron of South Vietnam after Hanoi forced the French to retreat in 1954 and soon the Second Indochina War began. In both wars, Hanoi received tremendous support from the PRC as well as the Soviet Union. It eventually managed to repel US forces and achieve the reunification of North and South Vietnam in 1975.

Soon after reunification, Vietnam started a socialist transformation programme, which adversely affected the ethnic Chinese in the country, especially those in the south. The Chinese, who formed the middle class in Vietnam, began to leave the country in large numbers.

Meanwhile, despite receiving help from the PRC in their fight for independence, the Vietnamese resented being continually influenced by China. In 1976, at their fourth party congress, the Vietnamese Communist Party leadership purged the pro– Beijing group in their midst, and relations between China and Vietnam became tense. More importantly, Vietnam'srelationship with the Soviet Union, which had begun to intensify, culminated in a formal alliance in June 1978, which was perceived by Beijing as an act to encircle the PRC. Subsequently, on 25 December 1978, Vietnam invaded and occupied Cambodia, which was an ally of Beijing.