HANOI, September 15 — For years, Vietnam has been the textbook case against Chinese soft power in Southeast Asia. A millennium of resistance against Chinese domination, a border war within living memory, unresolved maritime disputes, and elite surveys showing deep Vietnamese distrust of Beijing all pointed the same way. Yet beneath those strategic tensions, a quieter shift is under way.
Young Vietnamese are warming to Chinese culture, language, lifestyles and economic opportunity — and the change is visible in shopping malls, on smartphones and in university applications.
From Labubu queues to streaming platforms
Crowds queue for Labubu toys. Chinese-language jobs draw a scramble of applicants. Chinese content goes viral on social media, and record numbers of Vietnamese students are choosing Chinese universities.
China’s cultural appeal rests on a mix of familiarity and contemporary trendiness. Chinese dramas have long been a fixture of Vietnamese television, and Vietnam is now among Asia’s largest markets for them, with reach amplified by digital distribution.
Content from major Chinese streaming platforms such as iQiyi, Tencent Video and Youku is carried on Vietnamese platforms including VieOn and FPT Play, delivering China’s entertainment industry directly into Vietnamese homes and onto smartphones. Some Vietnamese celebrities have found wider fame on Chinese reality shows, while hit Chinese formats have been adapted for Vietnamese audiences. Chinese brands have won over young Vietnamese with trendy designs and affordable prices.
Mixue, the Chinese ice cream and tea chain, had expanded to more than 1,300 Vietnamese outlets by late 2024, making Vietnam its second-largest overseas market. Chagee, Cotti Coffee, KKV and Pop Mart have followed suit, turning shopping centres in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City into showcases of “Made in China” cool.
TikTok and the peer-to-peer pull
New media amplifies that traction. TikTok counts more than 70 million monthly active users in Vietnam, out of 460 million across Southeast Asia, and sits within a broader Chinese digital ecosystem channelling content on Chinese culture and daily life to regional audiences. Vietnamese-language content on TikTok and Facebook, including from Vietnamese influencers living in or travelling through China, offers viewers a window onto Chinese cities, landscapes and the rhythms of life and work there.
This bottom-up, peer-driven pull unfolds alongside a renewed official push for closer people-to-people ties. Since the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations and the designation of 2025 as the “Year of Vietnam-China Humanistic Exchange”, officials on both sides have promoted youth engagement.
The joint statement during President Xi Jinping’s state visit in April 2025 invited Vietnamese youth to join “Red Study Tours”; more than 1,000 have done so, visiting sites commemorating shared revolutionary history, including the former base of the Vietnamese Revolutionary Youth League in Guangzhou, alongside hi-tech hubs showcasing China’s modern development and technological achievements.
Travel and study numbers climb
Two-way travel has expanded too, supported by growing rail and air links. Since August, Vietnamese citizens have been able to transit China visa-free for up to 10 days, and the Vietnam-China Tourism Cooperation Years 2026-2027 initiative aims to further strengthen people-to-people ties. Chinese visitor arrivals to Vietnam surged 41.3 per cent to 5.3 million in 2025, making China Vietnam’s largest source of tourists, while Vietnam had become China’s fourth-largest source market by mid-2026.
Education diplomacy tells a similar story. The number of Vietnamese students in China has more than doubled, from 11,300 in 2018 to about 25,000 today.
Four converging forces underpin the shift: cultural attraction, new-media connectivity, facilitation by both governments, and economic incentives. What to watch next is whether that warmth among young Vietnamese outlasts the strategic frictions that have long defined the relationship.
