HANOI, September 15 — For years, Vietnam has been the standard example of China’s limited soft power in Southeast Asia: a millennium of resistance against Chinese domination, a border war within living memory, unresolved maritime disputes and elite surveys that consistently show Vietnamese respondents’ deep distrust of Beijing. Yet beneath those strategic tensions, a quieter shift is under way, according to an Asian Angle opinion piece.
Young Vietnamese are warming to Chinese culture, language, lifestyles and economic opportunity — from crowds queuing for Labubu toys to a scramble for Chinese-language jobs, from Chinese content going viral on social media to record numbers of Vietnamese students choosing to study at Chinese universities.
Four forces pulling young Vietnamese closer
The piece identifies four converging forces behind the shift: cultural attraction, new-media connectivity, facilitation by both governments and economic incentives. China’s cultural appeal rests on a mix of cultural 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, their reach amplified by digital distribution.
Content from major Chinese streaming platforms such as iQiyi, Tencent Video and Youku is carried on Vietnamese platforms such as VieOn and FPT Play, delivering China’s entertainment industry directly into Vietnamese homes and onto Vietnamese smartphones. Some Vietnamese celebrities have found wider fame on Chinese reality shows, while hit Chinese formats have been adapted for Vietnamese audiences.
That appeal has spilled into shopping and lifestyle. Many 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.
New media and a renewed official push
None of this cultural traction would travel as far, or as fast, without new media. 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 that channels 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 in the country.
This bottom-up, peer-driven pull is unfolding 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 the two countries’ shared revolutionary history — among them the former base of the Vietnamese Revolutionary Youth League in Guangzhou — alongside hi-tech hubs that showcase China’s modern development and technological achievements. 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. The numbers are impressive.
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.
What to watch next is whether this warmer cultural and educational exchange can outlast the strategic frictions that have long defined the relationship — and whether the pull felt by young Vietnamese translates into durable ties between the two societies.
