At the opening of a conference on Chinese politics in Hanoi late last year, the Vietnamese host was quick to reassure the delegates. "Talking about a country's political system," she said, "is not the same as interfering in a country's political system."
Few countries know China as well as Vietnam and are as adept at handling it, with skills learned over hundreds of years of managing cross-border trade and skirmishes and, sometimes, war -- on land and at sea.
