Vietnam wants to harness its diaspora in Australia and NZ to boost its growth. It may face strong opposition

Vietnam's Communist Party leader, Tô Lâm, is visiting Australia and New Zealand this week—the first such official visit by a party general secretary since two thousand nine. According to The Conversation, his delegation will sign bilateral agreements spanning education, agriculture, health, technology, defense and security. But beyond the formal diplomacy lies a significant strategic shift. Vietnam's government has officially reframed its overseas diaspora—over three hundred fifty thousand people of Vietnamese heritage in Australia, plus thirty-five thousand students—as a 'strategic national resource.' The aim is to harness remittances, investment, and technology expertise to support Vietnam's ambitious goal of reaching high-income status by twenty forty-five. The challenge, per The Conversation, is deep ideological resistance—particularly among the older refugee generation who fled Communist rule. While newer nationalist students increasingly support the government, many established Vietnamese-Australians remain skeptical of one-party governance and concerned about human rights protections. This divide mirrors the conflicting commemorations of the Vietnam War in Australian cities. Without meaningful openness to diaspora concerns, Vietnam's strategy risks falling flat—even as it deepens defense partnerships with Australia amid shifting Indo-Pacific geopolitics.

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