Top Vietnamese lawmaker in China after president's surprise ouster

HO CHI MINH CITY -- Vuong Dinh Hue, Vietnam's top legislator and a presidential contender, is making a lengthy trip to China, projecting stability between the world's two biggest communist countries after Hanoi upgraded ties with the U.S. and ousted two presidents in the course of a year.

National Assembly Chair Hue's six-day visit ending Friday will include talks on trade, party relations, tourism, and the "community of common destiny," a concept linked to regional security that China convinced Vietnam to adopt during President Xi Jinping's visit to Hanoi in December. That month Vietnam rose to the rank of No. 2 market for Chinese exports after the U.S., according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity, with many of those goods fueling a Vietnamese supply chain alternative to China.