Nikkei Asia reports:

On a recent Friday in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City, friends kissed hello as they entered the Racha Room, a tunnel-shaped bar lit by warm, ochre lamps. Inside, patrons shouted over booming classic rock and sipped from each other’s Old-Fashioneds.

It was a scene to strike a chill into the hearts of the COVID-conscious. A standing-room-only venue, windows clamped shut against the night air, and not a mask in sight. It might have been a glimpse into an eerie alternative reality — a 2021 that could have existed had the coronavirus never broken out.

But the scene is a reality for Vietnam. The country was spared a year of lockdowns, horrific body counts, besieged hospitals, and corrosive national bickering about COVID-19 mistakes and trade-offs. While some criticized a harsh initial government coronavirus response, today, COVID-19 cases total 1,539 with 35 deaths — a figure among the world’s lowest, and especially astounding given the country’s shared border with China. The economy, bars and all, has stayed open, propelling it to one of 2020’s highest growth rates even while neighboring countries wrestled with recession.

Despite the decimation of health systems and economies abroad, 2020 was the year Vietnam introduced three trade deals, lured billboard investors like Apple suppliers, launched another airline, and rose to No. 6 from No. 7 in Southeast Asia by per capita income.

The contrast between life inside and outside Vietnam’s borders could hardly be starker. Outside, hospitals are deluged and families hole up indoors for the better part of a year. Inside, people share entrees, go to school, fly on weekly business trips, hit the gym, and cram into buses and elevators. The same dynamic is reflected in the economy.

“Recall that when the COVID-19 epidemic first emerged, [the World Trade Organization] and others forecast a plunge in global trade,” VinaCapital CEO Don Lam told Nikkei Asia, adding that some suggested “Vietnam was among the countries at the greatest risk because exports play such an important role in its economic growth.”

But, he said: “Instead, the opposite has come true. Vietnam’s openness to trade is playing a key part in its quick economic recovery.”

As work-from-home shopping boomed in the U.S. and Europe, for example, Vietnam’s electronics and furniture exporters rode the demand wave. Manufacturers siphoned orders from nearby countries where COVID-19 shutdowns rendered rival factories idle.

Vietnam was able to exit lockdown by the end of April, thanks to experience handling tropical diseases, including the 2003 SARS outbreak. Officials swiftly isolated patients, traced their contacts, did targeted testing, and were among the first to scrap international flights. No officials strayed from the dogged public messaging on handwashing and social distancing, conveyed through mass texts, communist-style street posters, announcements over speakers, and even a viral TikTok skit. As the world’s understanding of the novel coronavirus evolved, Vietnam evolved with it: Next to handwashing posters, city governments later strung up banners exhorting people to keep rooms well-ventilated.

At the height of infections, the authorities banned taxis and sealed off any apartment blocks where tenants tested positive, barring thousands from even stepping outdoors. In 2021, some buildings still require masks for entry.

As uncertainty swirled, the one-party state also battled fake conspiracies with a blunt instrument, extinguishing online rumors about bleach remedies and bat soup, but also blocking criticism of the pandemic response. Some who aired their criticism on social media wound up facing arrest, according to the human rights monitoring organization Amnesty International.

Other aspects of the coronavirus response also uniquely highlighted the capabilities of an authoritarian state. It published patients’ details, such as addresses, to aid in contact tracing; deployed security officers to knock on doors to find infected people; and tried to hack Chinese agencies to collect virus intel in January 2020, according to FireEye. The U.S. cybersecurity company said Vietnamese actors likely sent emails with malicious code to China’s Ministry of Emergency Management and the Wuhan government, but did not say if the phishing attack succeeded. [Continue reading…]