China-Russian relations carry deep memories of mutual respect... and scorn Rana Mitter

[Uncle Joe]

The troops gathered on the border. The supreme leader decided that it was time to invade, to teach the other side a lesson. Shortly afterwards, troops breached the internationally recognised border and clashed with local forces.

Not Ukraine 2022, but Vietnam 1979. In January of that year, the Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping told the US president Jimmy Carter that he wanted to “spank the butt” of his neighbours. For a month, Chinese and Vietnamese forces clashed, leading to a death toll of tens of thousands. Chinese troops withdrew in March 1979, when, unlike Vladimir Putin, Deng sensibly decided to declare a famous victory and head home. Since then, there has been no unambiguous breach of an international border by Chinese troops.

China’s brief invasion of Vietnam isn’t much talked about today during the Ukraine crisis. None of the western actors wants to bring it up when they are trying to pressure China over its general fixation on the sanctity of national sovereignty. And Moscow won’t mention it, because it brings back an awkward memory for their friends in Beijing: China’s 1979 venture wasn’t really about Vietnam, but about Russia.

Sino-Soviet relations had become poisonous ever since the split between the two communist superpowers in 1960. Vietnam, with Soviet backing, invaded and occupied Cambodia in 1978, ousting the Khmer Rouge. In the bizarre cold war politics of the time, both the US and China supported Pol Pot’s genocidal regime because its Vietnamese enemy was supported by Moscow.

(snip)

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/27/sino-soviet-ties-deep-complex-will-they-unravel