Bamboo diplomacy: Vietnam is wedged between superpowers

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  The Economist.

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  Hi, it's Alice Su.

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  I co-host Drum Tower,

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  our weekly podcast on China.

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  Here's an article handpicked from the latest edition of The Economist read out loud.

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  I thought you might enjoy it.

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  The first Asian leader to reach Donald Trump by phone

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  after he announced reciprocal tariffs in the Rose Garden

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  on April 2nd was Tho Lam,

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  the General Secretary of Vietnam's Communist Party.

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  he offered to eliminate all tariffs on American goods.

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  Mr Trump praised Mr Lam in a subsequent post on social media.

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  Mr Trump's tone changed a few days later, however,

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  when Mr Lam welcomed Xi Jinping,

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  China's leader, to Hanoi for his second state visit in three years.

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  Mr Trump declared that the pair were meeting to work out how do we screw the United States of America?

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  Few countries are as caught up in the geopolitics of the moment as Vietnam.

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  It lies between America and China in many supply chains.

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  The two countries are its two biggest trading partners.

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  It is a communist dictatorship like China,

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