> Why not just plain "developmentalist state", and possibly more akin
> to Suharto's in, e.g., corruption than, say, Japan's or Korea's?
Because (1) Vietnam's state isn't overly corrupt, (2) seems to be reasonably efficient at channeling resources into education, technology and the industrial base, and (3) is setting up many of the key infrastructures which worked well for South Korea and Japan (postal savings banks, long-term planning, carefully sequenced trade, joint ventures, etc.)
> The Vietnamese economists apparently bought into the Chinese rhetoric
> without noticing the discrepancy between that and their actions --
> which could be quite a disaster for them.
I have great faith in the power of Vietnamese economists to say one thing, tell journalists/visitors another, and then go and implement something altogether different.
-- DRR