In the richly intertwined history of China and Vietnam, the Hoa, or ethnic Chinese communities, have long existed in both rural northern regions and urban centers such as Saigon, developing a mixed identity. By the end of 1979, following the Sino-Vietnamese War, 250,000 Hoa sought refuge across Southeast Asia due to discrimination against their Chinese identities. Since then, similar incidents of discrimination have arisen in Vietnam. Often in response to protests against the People’s Republic of China, such as the 2014 protests over the South China Sea, protests have led to the burning of Chinese-owned businesses. In recent years, the geopolitical rivalry between China and Vietnam has intensified, particularly over territorial disputes and Chinese foreign direct investment. This paper explores whether discrimination against the Hoa is driven by nationalism—defined as loyalty to one’s country—or by ethnonationalism, rooted in shared cultural and ethnic attributes. It also examines how Vietnamese citizens define national identity, or "Vietnameseness." The study conducts a survey-embedded question-wording experiment with 600 Vietnamese citizens currently residing in Vietnam, focusing on individuals with college or higher education. Additionally, the study compares attitudes toward discrimination across different ethnic migrant groups in Vietnam, such as the Hoa, Thai, and Khmer, to determine whether discrimination is generalized or driven by specific ethnic identities. Understanding the form of nationalism is crucial for determining whether discrimination is a response to geopolitical tensions or whether it is a broader social phenomenon independent of such tensions.