Political representation of problems includes an aim to control an audience's impressions and create a societally-acceptable social reality. This paper analyses the narrative construction of ethical trade between the European Union (EU) and Vietnam. As an undemocratic Other, Vietnam has been sharply criticized for its human rights record by civil society and Members of European Parliament. Yet, the EU recently concluded two trade agreements with Vietnam. We argue that, unchallenged by the European Parliament, the European Commission created a performative 'story of change' for its European audience by simultaneously appealing to underlying 'neoliberal' and 'development' paradigms. In this narrative, the EU and Vietnam star as the main characters, who, in their joint attempts to make bilateral trade 'a force for good', live moments of heroism, encounter fleeting instances of victimhood, and defeat villains on the path to ethical trade.

中文翻译：

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“向善的力量”：道德的欧盟-越南贸易关系的叙事建构

问题的政治表现包括控制观众印象和创造社会可接受的社会现实的目的。本文分析了欧盟（EU）与越南之间道德贸易的叙事建构。作为一个不民主的他者，越南因其人权记录而受到公民社会和欧洲议会议员的严厉批评。然而，欧盟最近与越南缔结了两项贸易协定。我们认为，在不受欧洲议会挑战的情况下，欧盟委员会通过同时诉诸潜在的“新自由主义”和“发展”范式，为其欧洲观众创造了一个表演性的“变革故事”。在这个叙述中，欧盟和越南是主角，他们共同尝试进行双边贸易'