I would use the word 'truce' instead.
Change is inevitable and the commies knows it. Right now, the commies are taking the pragmatic path -- the allowance of greater economic freedom. Ideologically, just like the ChiComms, they know the -isms of Marx, Lenin, and Mao are done for, at least for this hundred yr period, anyway. Tossing bread in front of the people and temporarily their minds will be focused on the bread and their physical hunger.
So for now, while the economic bread from the likes of Intel, Samsung, and Sony are keeping the Vietnamese people occupied, the country's top minds are busy wondering what to do next, not about keeping the Communist Party in power when they know this -ism is nothing but an empty vessel that no one want to fill, but about where to take the Vietnamese other than the -ism of the Americans. The sad part is that there are no other alternatives. Everyone know of the other empty vessel -- socialism with Chinese characteristics. What will we see next -- socialism with Vietnamese characteristics ? It will be an even greater joke for both peoples.
Like it or not, the best path for true Vietnamese independence and prosperity is to break away from the failed -isms of Marx, Lenin, and Mao, and if not the adoption of the bicameral political system of the US, then at least the parliamentary model that most democracies are using today. Let the Chinese be two-faced about their system. The world snickers behind their palms at the Chinese leaders whenever they changes from the coat and tie to the Mao suit and even ordinary Chinese rolled their eyes at the costume changes in the Chinese political theater. A Viet Nam with the parliamentary democratic system and capitalism will go the way of Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. The Chinese are already contemptuous of those countries anyway, so what does Viet Nam have to lose ?
You are probably right, I would say they are trying to follow the chinese model and hoping that it will last long enough, western style economy with the autocratic political system of the VCP. In China the system is probably going to last longer since the chinese are a lot better than Vietnam at managing the economy, the SOESs, etc and produce results that people can see and at the same time, their control of power and suppression is more comprehensive. So in theory they are right to expect that it can last a while.
That being said, the 28 trillion usd housing bubble and the big stock market bubble that they have now, can easily collapse the economy and then all the bets are off.
In Vietnam, without foreign investment, the country would be back to where it was in 1990.
2014 exports were 150 billion usd, of that, 112 billion from foreign companies, that says everything. The state based part of the economy on the other hand, only produced a 69 billion usd debt. Foreign investment is what keeps the country afloat even that the system always manages to find ways to mess things up a bit. The regime in Vietnam has a gentler face than in China and overall, Vietnam is more open than China and that also contributes to a more sustainable situation, but long term, something has to give.
It will be interesting to watch and see what happens in both Vietnam and China.
I find the Vietnamese very interesting. On the one hand they hate our guts but at the same time they have taken over large elements of our culture, language and these days even our form of political system not to mention our economic model. They are in many ways a mini China.
Asians in that sense are strange people. Countries like China and Vietnam but also Japan have a lot of similarities. Yet we hate each other. While the same can be said about India and Pakistan. While China and Pakistan seem to be getting along quite well and the same goes for Japan and India.
I'm also surprised by the hostility between Vietnamese and Indonesian members here
As a foreigner living in Vietnam that also has being going to China extensibly for the last 12 years, I can say that there is no country as similar to China as Vietnam, by far. Everything is very similar, the people are very similar, even the same bad habits. They are not the same, but almost the same in so many ways. If China were to be smarter, they would make Vietnam their best ally and treat them like the little brother, but the problem is, big brother always try to control or conquer the little brother, so in practice things don't workout as well as it should.
The thing between Vietnamese and Indonesian members is mostly related to some very competitive members that can't relate to others without the thing about "I'm better than you", its a very tribal way of thinking, but we do live in a very tribal world.