On July 30, the "Hand in Hand - 2025" joint army exercise between China and Vietnam concluded in Chongzuo, Guangxi. During the 10-day joint training, both sides conducted various subjects such as reconnaissance, camouflage, drones, shooting, first aid, chemical defense, and logistics. The new Chinese military equipment and personnel capabilities left a deep impression on the Vietnamese side.

Just after the end of the joint military training between China and Vietnam, the Vietnamese side began to summarize the experience and realized the significant gap between their military and that of China.

General Nguyen Van Lich, Deputy Commander of the First Military Zone of Vietnam, stated at the summary meeting that the 10-day joint training with the Chinese military reflected the spirit of bilateral cooperation and sharing of experience, demonstrating the actual capability of both armies to maintain peace and stability on the border. The coordination capability of the Vietnamese military was improved, and they deeply felt the military literacy and capability of the Chinese side.

From public news reports, the Vietnamese military was deeply impressed by the unmanned weapons and land forces equipment of the Chinese PLA. During the exercise, there were Chinese soldiers teaching Vietnamese soldiers how to use drones. Additionally, when the Vietnamese military rode in Chinese vehicles, they also experienced the advanced internal facilities.

For the Vietnamese military, although the past decade has seen some improvements in military equipment and level due to economic development, the overall weapon and equipment are still relatively backward due to the impact of military commerce and low-level defense industry.

Especially in the main battle weapons of the army, most are still T-55 and Type 59 main battle tanks, with only a small number of third-generation T-90S main battle tanks. The infantry fighting vehicles are still the Soviet BMP-1 and BMP-2 models from the 1970s, and lack self-propelled artillery, remaining in a mechanized state. Therefore, the overall development level is about 20-30 years behind that of the Chinese military.

Although the main battle weapons of our side did not appear much during this exercise, the overall display showed features of informationization, systematization, and unmanned operations. This made the Vietnamese military, which is still in a non-information warfare mindset, realize the huge gap.

Notably, since this military training was the first ever military exercise between China and Vietnam, it attracted attention from the United States.

American military experts, when interviewed by Bloomberg, said that the cooperation between China and Vietnam in the defense field reflects the interests of both countries in the military domain. Under the context of American tariff threats, both sides are continuously deepening their defense relations to cope with external economic pressure, maintaining autonomy in the changing global order.

For the United States, although it can rely on tariff threats to make Vietnam concede on the issue of transshipment of Chinese goods, Vietnam is a neighboring country of China, and both have similar systems. This makes it difficult for Vietnam to sacrifice China's interests on a large scale to meet the demands of the United States.

More importantly, with the end of the Cold War, Vietnam no longer has the external conditions of the Cold War era, and there is a huge gap between its military and that of China, and it also has the need to develop its economy by relying on China. Therefore, cooperation has become the main direction between China and Vietnam at this stage, and it is not easy for the United States to insert itself.

In fact, this joint military training between China and Vietnam, although a military cooperation, is also a demonstration of military strength, allowing the Vietnamese side to understand the actual strength and level of the Chinese military. By realizing the huge gap, it will further promote cooperation through the fear of power and the admiration of virtue.

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7533837684465254931/

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