Edited sentence: According to Prof Zhang's reseach in the book Deng Xiaoping’s Long War: Hanoi’s decision to prioritize the normalization of relations with China over maintaining control in Cambodia was based on its calculation of how to extricate itself from a strategic predicament.At the same time, China was perceived as a model for surviving communist states and as a desperately needed partner for Vietnam’s economic development.The communist world had crumbled, and the Soviet Union, Hanoi’s patron, was disintegrating.The continuation of the deadlock over Cambodia became too much of a liability for Vietnamese national interests when the country had already decided that economic reform would be a major part of its strategic plan for the future.The decade-long confrontation between Vietnam and China, as a Vietnamese diplomat admitted to his Chinese counterparts, had inflicted heavy losses that Vietnam could no longer afford.The new Vietnamese leaders recognized that their country was in a much weaker position than it had previously occupied