page_title: Sino-Vietnamese War
section_title: Aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Sino-Vietnamese War / Aftermath
caption_attribution_description: Nam Quan gate, now located in China previously in Vietnam until the border issue was settled
context_page_description: The Sino-Vietnamese War was a border war fought between the People's Republic of China and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in early 1979. China launched an offensive in response to Vietnam's invasion and occupation of Cambodia in 1978.
  Chinese forces entered northern Vietnam and captured several cities near the border. On March 6, 1979, China declared that the gate to Hanoi was open and that their punitive mission had been achieved. Chinese troops then withdrew from Vietnam. Both China and Vietnam claimed victory in the last of the Indochina Wars. As Vietnamese troops remained in Cambodia until 1989, one can say that China remained unsuccessful in its goal of dissuading Vietnam from involvement in Cambodia until 1989. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Sino-Vietnamese border was finalized.
  Although unable to deter Vietnam from Cambodia, China succeeded in demonstrating that its Cold War communist and socialist adversary, the Soviet Union, was unable to protect its Vietnamese ally.
context_section_description: China and Vietnam each lost thousands of troops, and China lost 3.45 billion yuan in overhead, which delayed completion of their 1979–80 economic plan. Following the war, the Vietnamese leadership took various repressive measures to deal with the problem of real or potential collaboration. In the spring of 1979, the authorities expelled approx. 8,000 Hoa people from Hanoi to the southern "New Economic Zones", and partially resettled the Hmong tribes and other ethnic minorities from the northernmost provinces. In response to the defection of Hoàng Văn Hoan, a purge was launched to cleanse the Communist Party of Vietnam of pro-Chinese elements and persons who had surrendered to the advancing Chinese troops during the war. In 1979, a total of 20,468 members were expelled from the party. Although Vietnam continued to occupy Cambodia, China successfully mobilized international opposition to the occupation, rallying such leaders as Cambodia's deposed king Norodom Sihanouk, Cambodian anticommunist leader Son Sann, and high-ranking members of the Khmer Rouge to deny the pro-Vietnamese Cambodian People's Party in Cambodia diplomatic recognition beyond the Soviet bloc. China improved relations with ASEAN by promising protection to Thailand and Singapore against "Vietnamese aggression". In contrast, Vietnam's decreasing prestige in the region led it to be more dependent on the Soviet Union, to which it leased a naval base at Cam Ranh Bay. On 1 March 2005, Howard W. French wrote in The New York Times: Some historians stated that the war was started by Mr Deng (China's then paramount leader Deng Xiaoping) to keep the army preoccupied while he consolidated power...
caption: Nam Quan Gate
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