「錢」進能否打動人心？論中國大陸對越南的投資對其在越南形象之影響

Can Money Win Hearts? The Impact of China's Investments in Vietnam on Her Image in Vietnamese Minds

阮功松(Nguyen, Cong-Tung)

《展望與探索月刊》 17卷6期 (2019/06) Pp. 56-95

摘要

中國大陸（以下簡稱大陸）快速崛起的經濟實力是否能夠有效提升其在世界各地的影響力及其國家形象是當代國際政治經濟學研究中尤為重要的議題之一。大陸在世界上的整體形象相當錯綜複雜，國際社會普遍看好其經濟表現，但對於其政治自由、國家社會關係等問題各持己見。有的觀點認為大陸目前仍然是一個「部分強權」（partial power），而有些則相信當下的大陸已經足以與美國平起平坐。不管是何種觀點，作為一個新興崛起的超強，大陸十分需要被國際社會認可，因此，在近幾年來，大陸在世界上努力地提升其國家形象，其中加強對外投資被視為重要的手段之一。本文以大陸對越南的投資作為研究案例，探討大陸的投資對形塑其在越南的形象所扮演的角色。透過考察現成的民調結果以及深入探討一些大陸在越南的投資項目，本文發現，大陸對越南投資的增加仍無法讓大陸在越南的形象得到明顯的改善。本文認為人民的觀感可能是關鍵之一，且該項關鍵因素即可能超越一國對於經濟利益的追求。本文同時發現，大陸的不同投資項目對其在越南的形象會產生不同的效果，即大陸在開發自然資源、基建項目的投資形象相當差，進而其在越南的整體形象也被拖了後腿。反之，對於被認為是對越南發展有利的高科技產業的投資則呈現形象良好的趨勢，然而像這些表現良好的投資項目數寥寥無幾，無法拉高大陸的整體形象。另外，本文首次發展出「極度對比反差心理」（Extreme Contrast Psychology）這個概念來解釋大陸加大對越南投資與其在越南形象之間的因果關係。本文的發現對於解釋大陸如何透過經濟權力來提升影響力和國家形象及其效果具有重要的實證意義。

關鍵字

國家形象 ； 經濟權力 ； 大陸對外投資 ； 極度對比反差心理

並列摘要

Whether China can transform its emerging economic power into the influence over other countries as well as enhancing its national image is one of the critical issues in the contemporary international political economy studies. China's national image is differently interpreted amongst countries. While the international community is generally impressed by its economic performance, there are different perspectives on its political system and the state-society relationship. Some believe that China is still a ＂partial power＂ while others counter-argue by noting that China has already become an America's peer competitor. Whether it is a partial power or an America's peer competitor, as a rising super power on the world stage, China urgently needs its own audience. Accordingly, China has been restlessly seeking ways to boost its national image in the world. Strengthening outward investments has been regarded as one of the important means. This article takes China's investments in Vietnam as a case study to explore how it affects the making of China's image in Vietnam. By examining the polling data on Vietnamese opinions of China as well as delving into some noteworthy China's investment projects in Vietnam, this paper discovers that as China's investments increase, her image in Vietnam has not been significantly enhanced. We assume that the perception of Vietnamese people toward China's investments is the underlying reason, and this may exceed Vietnam's pursuit of economic interests. Besides, the study assumes that different China's investment projects produce different effects on China's national image. Particularly, for the investments using large amounts of natural resources or investments in infrastructure are admittedly regarded as 'unfavorable' to Vietnam's development and national security, thus earning a rather poor investment image. Ultimately, they will negatively affect China's national image in Vietnam. On the contrary, investments in the high-tech industries that are perceived to be beneficial to Vietnam's development are often welcomed and hence win a relatively good image. However, the number of such well-performing investment projects is rather small and thus cannot help to improve China's overall national image. The study first coined the concept of ＂Extreme Contrast Psychology＂ to explain the causal mechanism between the increasing China's investments and its correlation with China's national image in Vietnam. The findings of this paper provide important empirical implications for explaining how China can strengthen its influence and national image through economic leverage as well as the effectiveness of this means.

並列關鍵字

national image ； economic power ； China outward investment ； extreme contrast psychology