Sino-Vietnamese War 1979-1991

The Chinese and Vietnamese were traditional enemies; tensions between the two increased when Vietnam strengthened its ties with the Soviet Union and Sino-Vietnamese relations deteriorated further over Kampuchea (now Cambodia). China supported the Khmer Rouge. The escalating confrontation between Kampuchea and Vietnam in 1978 resulted in a Chinese decision to suspend technical and economic aid to Vietnam in the summer. Vietnam responded by persecuting and expelling its Chinese minority; about 150,000 fled to China by land and 250,000 fled elsewhere by sea. An estimated 30,000 to 40,000 of the “boat people” died in the process. While the Vietnamese occupation of Kampuchea, practically completed in January 1979, did not lead to a Chinese military intervention in support of the Khmer Rouge, the diplomatic defeat did provoke a punitive expedition in Vietnam. On February 17, 1979, Chinese troops crossed the border into northern Vietnam at several locations.

The Vietnamese defenders were mainly border security forces and local militia units. Chinese forces advance some 8km on the first day but then nearly stalled because of determined resistance from Vietnamese defenders and logistical difficulties. The advance resumed on February 20th, capturing Lao Cai after several days of fighting and then the historically and economically significant city of Lang Son. Chinese forces ultimately penetrated about 30km into Vietnamese territory. Meanwhile, a Vietnamese counter-offensive across the border into the Chinese province of Yunnan province was repulsed. On March 5, 1979, China declared that Vietnam had received enough punishment and Chinese forces were beginning a gradual withdrawal.

Observers tended to doubt the Chinese claims of it having inflicted a punishing defeat on Vietnam in 1979. The Vietnamese claimed China had suffered a military setback (if not outright defeat) in its foray into Vietnam; after all, Vietnam was not moved to alter its operations in Kampuchea (as Cambodia was known then); Vietnam supposedly did not even redeploy any of its regulars from Kampuchea to resist the Chinese incursion in the north. As the militaries disengaged, the governments began negotiations on a settlement but these broke down several times before being discontinued in December 1979.

For the Chinese government, the relatively poor performance of its armed forces in 1979 justified a purge of Maoists in the People’s Liberation Army and modernization. The lack of progress on a settlement, which (from a Chinese perspective) was only possible on the basis of a Vietnamese withdrawal from Kampuchea, justified a continuation of the war. A lack of international attention to the Sino-Vietnamese border belied the reality of routine skirmishing between the opposing armies.

During the following years, there would be repeated skirmishes and shelling on the Sino-Vietnamese border. Major clashes included an extended artillery duel reported by Vietnam in July 1980. In May 1981, the Chinese were reported to have killed more than 100 attacking Vietnamese troops. A Chinese report from April 1983 claimed skirmishing in which Vietnamese soldiers were killed. From April through July 1984, there were conflicting reports of artillery duels, border incursions, and casualties by China and Vietnam. During 1984, Soviet aircraft were deployed to Vietnam and joint amphibious landing exercises (suggestive of a Soviet intervention in the event of a Chinese invasion) were conducted as a show of support in the war. By December 1984, the border battles around Laoshan escalated as both sides committed larger forces. A major border clash occurred during June 1985. In January 1987, conflicting reports suggested the scale of combat was increasing as claims of inflicting 500 or more casualties were reported by both sides.

The war along the border had reached a stalemate by the end of October 1987 when a Vietnamese fighter was shot down over China. In March 1988, possibly in an effort to break the stalemate, China occupied a part of the Spratly Islands claimed by Vietnam, killing at least 64 Vietnamese defenders; Vietnam proposed negotiating. One indication of change during this period was the significant drop in Chinese shelling of Vietnamese positions in 1988. At the end of January 1989, China and Vietnam were reported to have reached an agreement in principle on the Vietnamese withdrawal from Cambodia. Tensions along the border lessened considerably during 1989-1990 and China began to pull back its forces from the border. New negotiations began and a settlement was signed on November 10, 1991. The last Chinese troop withdrawals would not take place until 1992 but the war was already over and relations had been normalized.

Notes

[1] By convention, the termination date for the war is March 5, 1979 (when the Chinese announced their intention to withdraw) and most sources either consider the rest of the war mere skirmishing or ignore it. Correlates of War (CoW) lists an end date of March 16, 1979, presumably the completion of the withdrawal. However, the truce that followed did not end the war (and neither country considered the war finished) nor did it last. There is general agreement that peace talks failed. What followed was a limited war in which China harassed and contested the border. Vietnam fought back. The scale of combat is more-or-less unclear. Zhang suggests it was minor up to November 1980 after which China began more offensive actions; from December 1984 fighting intensified up to October 1987. CoW lists a second Sino-Vietnamese war from January 6, 1987 to February 6, 1987 and this supports the impression of scale Zhang gives (but lacks the context). Although evidence suggests the amount of warfare dropped substantially after October 1987, there is no clear end point other than the final Sino-Vietnamese agreement.

[2] It is not at all clear how many battle deaths were incurred during the entire war. Clodfelter reports 26,000 Chinese battle deaths and 30,000 Vietnamese battle deaths by March 5, 1979. CoW reports 13,000 and 8,000 for February 17 to March 16, 1979. CoW reports 1,800 and 2,000 for January 6 to February 6, 1987. Zhang reports 2,050 Chinese deaths from 1985-89. The most conservative estimates is CoW and Zhang for China and the sum of CoW for Vietnam (rounded to the nearest thousandth).

References

Brogan 237-9; Clodfelter, 1144-5; COW193, 208; Dellios, 160; Kohn, 454; Li, 263; Vietnam - A Country Study; O'Dowd, 107; Zhang, 141-68.

Rosita Dellios. Modern Chinese Defence Strategy: Present Developments, Future Directions. Palgrave MacMillan. 1990.

Xiaobing Li. A History of the Modern Chinese Army. University Press of Kentucky. 2007.

Edward C O'Dowd. Chinese Military Strategy in the Third Indochina War: The Last Maoist War. Routledge. 2007.

Xiaoming Zhang. Deng Xiaoping's Long War: The Military Conflict between China and Vietnam, 1979-1991. University of North Carolina Press. 2015.

Category

Inter-State War

Region

East Asia

Belligerents

China, Vietnam

Dispute

Interests

Initiation Date

February 17, 1979

Termination Date

November 10, 1991^[1]

Duration

12 years, 8 months, 25 days
(4650 days)

Outcome

Negotiated Settlement
(Chinese victory)

Fatalities

Total: 25,000
China: 15,000^[2]
Vietnam: 10,000^[2]

Magnitude

4.4