Abstract
The year 2007 in Vietnam was bracketed by two events that could go down in history as watersheds in the country’s post-Cold War life. On 11 January, Vietnam began its membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO). In December, thousands of Vietnamese took to the streets to protest against China’s claims to the Paracel & Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. The accession to the WTO marked the full integration of Vietnam into the Western-led international system, closing a protracted process that began twenty years ago & opening a new era in the country’s economic life as well as its relations with the outside world. The anti-China protests demonstrated the re-emergence of nationalism, & with their suppression by Vietnamese authorities, that the banner of patriotism has changed hands from the state to alternative elite groups that are Internet-based & wealthy. These protests & Beijing’s urge to suppress them have put Hanoi) in a dire strait where it cannot avoid taking sides. Vietnam has just arrived in the world but already stood at a crossroads.