HEMMING IN THE CHINESE RATS 

Vietnam Gambles on $4 Billion Port to Check China's Naval Power

The project in the south comes as concerns mount over Beijing’s influence in Cambodia, and its increasingly dominant position in the South China Sea.

Construction of the 18-kilometer bridge connecting Ca Mau province to Hon Khoai island in Vietnam, in June.
Construction of the 18-kilometer bridge connecting Ca Mau province to Hon Khoai island in Vietnam, in June. Photographer: Truong Trung Tuan Phi/Vietnam News Agency
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At Vietnam’s southernmost tip, some eight hours by car from Ho Chi Minh City along potholed roads, heavy trucks rumble through mangrove swamps and shrimp farms as soldiers and construction crews work around the clock to build the country’s longest sea bridge.

The 18-kilometer (11-mile) crossing connects Ca Mau province to tiny Hon Khoai island — the centerpiece of a nearly $4 billion dual-use seaport and transport corridor linking the Mekong Delta region to global shipping routes in the Gulf of Thailand. For Hanoi, the project not only represents an expensive economic gamble, but a strategic response to growing concerns about Beijing’s expanding influence next door in Cambodia, and its increasingly dominant position in the South China Sea.

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