Even though many news media outlets claim that South Vietnam has lost to the communists, in fact, they actually won. Only that the communists actually took control of the government and installed a communist government, and it decimated Vietnam for good. Even though there are some Chinese and Vietnamese nationalists who argue that communism is of course good for the country, there is evidence to show that communism not only ruined China, it also ruined Vietnam. I was born in China so I know this, and when I was 17 in 1998 due to me loving freedom and democracy, I started moving to Western countries, first off to Paris for a year, then after finding out America is the best country, I moved to Massachusetts where my uncle and aunt lives.
There, I rented an apartment in Quincy and attended Northeastern and when I found out that Worcester and afterwards, Texas is a better place, I started to gravitate slowly towards those and now, I live in Sugarland TX enjoying all the freedoms and civil liberties over there.
In both China and Vietnam houses are so expensive where a 1 bedroom squalor could go upwards of 40 billion VND (1.6 million USD) and many Vietnamese are forced to live in shacks due to the fact their wages are $2000 or less per year on average. Also, communist Vietnam suppresses any free speech or civil liberties and students are essentially enslaved at school, shackled to their desks for 18 hours a day only learning propaganda. Vietnam even allows slavery as well, just like China, but to a lesser extent.
There is also a lot of crime, tons of poverty, no public services, a criminal government currently running both countries, extremely bad schools which force students into 18 hours a day of propaganda, bad healthcare/hospitals, too smelly, too much pollution, poor quality of life, bad public transit, too much tolls, bad job market, low job growth rate, high unemployment, low wages, too much taxes, too much traffic, and too many regulations. It is getting much worse since COVID and China/Vietnam has gone from a 'booming' (according to their government) country to an impoverished wasteland that is only better than countries like North Korea, Myanmar, and war torn countries. Just move to Texas. It is cheaper, has less crime, less traffic, less regulations, less taxes, less poverty, better schools, better hospitals, better quality of life, better infrastructure, better roads, better public transportation, and people in Texas are much nicer and more welcoming than in China and Vietnam.
Having been born in Shanghai in 1981 and having lived there for 17 years before moving to Europe, then America at 18, then visiting Shanghai for a week each year between 1999 and 2019 before COVID when I stopped travelling to China (in fact, my most recent trip to China was in 2019), I know that Shanghai sucks and is becoming a lot worse under Xi Jinping's cronies' leadership. Also, I went to Vietnam various times (2002, 2007, 2012, 2017, 2018, 2023, 2024), and it has been getting progressively worse since COVID. In Ho Chi Minh City, houses are so damn expensive, with a squalor 1 bedroom 50 sq m costing 40 billion VND rather than 10 billion VND for a beautiful 200-250 sq m house like those down in Sugar Land (the best place in America) and the weather is so bad that you get monsoon, typhoons, and massive tornadoes during the summer and hailstorms during the winter rather than moderate weather like in Texas.
Due to the fact Vietnam is communist as well as extremely autocratic as they are essentially a one-party state, I am no big fan of Vietnam, and let me explain here: First off, Vietnam is a 3rd world country ran by commies since 1945 with absolutely no freedom whatsoever. In fact, despite the fact China is poorer than countries like Indonesia, India, Philippines, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Pakistan, and much of Central Asia, they wanted to falsify the HDI and income numbers to make these other countries look bad so they could look good on the international stage. Wages are absolutely low with inequality rampant between city and rural folks with rural folks living like the standard of living in the least developed African countries, much of the outside world is shut (albeit at a better degree than North Korea), all the businesses are state owned (including Vingroup, VietJetAir, etc), houses are so expensive with a studio going upwards of 30-40 billion VND, crimes perpetrated by criminals and the government are rampant, and let's not forget the schools. Vietnam has some of the worst school system in the world and in my opinion is ran by a criminal enterprise. From what I heard based on testimonies by students who immigrate to the free world (the West), students are at school for 18 hours straight, forced to study propaganda topics while shackled and recite all the things they have learned and then for 6 hours a day, they are locked up in a cell with a bed and sleep there. The schools are also completely surrounded by barbed wires and the gates are guarded by security guards. Luckily, my wife and I didn't have to go to these schools back in China and instead, my parents and her parents knew better and sent us to a more liberal school for a bulk of cash. Due to the fact many Saigonese are essentially slaves and workaholics, no wonder why both China and Vietnam as a whole has some of the highest suicide rates in the world. Also, 'Vietnamese' culture has been erased in favor of communist culture and from what I heard, since COVID, Lunar New Year in a traditional sense has been banned in Vietnam. Also, ao dai is mandated as well in Vietnam amongst all women.
In Vietnam, poverty is rampant and healthcare is comparable to third world countries, there is a ton of pollution and extremely poor quality of life as people are forced into 98 hour workweeks, nearly nonexistent public transportation as people ride bikes, cows, and oxen, and only the elite have a car, bad job market, low job growth rate, high unemployment, low wages, too much taxes, and too many regulations. People in Vietnam are also xenophobic as well towards the outside world and I have seen beatings of foreigners visiting Vietnam. I have lived in Shanghai and have visited Shanghai every year when in the west until 2019, and let me tell you, as long as the criminal government is still around, it has been and will get a lot worse over time and a lot harder to enter as Shanghai and China as a whole is essentially just propaganda. There are also a lot of tropical diseases as well and one of my cousins in their 60s died due to an infectious disease in Mui Ne about 5 years ago. Also, due to the rampant depression and workaholism, a lot of people (including my 24F niece (who died due to dyeing her hair and having a brain aneurysm because of it) and my 15F niece in Cambridge MA who are both Chinese) have resorted to things like unnatural hair dye and stuff and to lighten their skin as well as plastic surgery to look more European and less authentic and that could be amongst the reasons many Vietnamese live in poverty.
Even though people claim that Texans are misogynistic, homophobic, racist, xenophobic, and Sinophobic, that is not the case. In fact, my house in Pearland I bought in 2003 for $75k which is 1500 sqft is now worth $300k, and even though I am Chinese, Texans are very polite towards me. See, in Texas, you get a much nicer house in a much nicer area for cheaper, which makes Sugar Land a better value for money. I really hope the communists either get themselves out of power or to liberalize the country before things get too late and people start to flee en masse kinda like in Vietnam back in 1975 for a much better life in Western countries or SEA countries because I could already see things getting progressively worse since COVID. I also talk to my older sister (53F) every week too, and she really regretted not moving to America when I tried sponsoring her back in 2012 when I became a US citizen.
I envision that if the Taiwanese government remained in control instead of the CCP, then Shanghai would have been a very great place to live and on par with Virginia in terms of goodness and much better than Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and California.
As for Vietnam, South Vietnam won and if the communists didn't overtake control and hijack the government like the CCP, then Nguyen Van Thieu would become the president and he would instill democratic values throughout Vietnam. The capital will be at Saigon and even if Hanoi is poorer than HCMC, both will be better than even DC, let alone Boston or NYC, two of the worst cities in America. Vietnam will have a lot of freedoms, Nordic values, no death penalty, prestigious universities where people aspire to study at, multiple political parties, clean cities instead of all the trash that has accumulated in Hanoi and Saigon, as well as very good infrastructure. Vietnam would have had high speed rail that will take you from Hanoi to Saigon in 4 hours and Saigon will have an extensive metro system just like Texas. Also, schools in Vietnam will be some of the best run, kinda like Sugarland schools, Vietnamese will make on average 20 billion VND a year rather than 40 million, everybody will own nice villas as every town will become an Atherton/Greenwich/Beverly Hills, healthcare would be envied throughout Asia, Vietnam will produce some of the best talent and will have giant conglomerates like Samsung (American company created by Koreans), Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Tesla, Facebook, Nvidia, etc, some of the lowest pollution levels of any country, tons of electric cars, no tolls, very good job market, no unemployment, low taxes, less traffic, and less regulations.
