Vietnam’s New Leader in China for First Foreign Visit

Vietnam’s new president To Lam has met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in China on his first foreign trip as leader of the South Asian country. The general secretary of the ruling Communist Party succeeded Nguyen Phu Trong as leader after Nguyen died last month at the age of 80. Vietnam, under Nguyen, has pursued a strategy of so-called bamboo diplomacy—dubbed for the plant’s great flexibility—balancing relations between China, Russia, the United States, and others. The visit on Aug. 19 comes months after Vietnam upgraded its diplomatic ties with the United States, as Western countries move their supply chains out of China and pivot to strengthen the liberal rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific....