The Vietnamese sent a 400-strong attack force. China's objective was simple: retain sovereignty and remove illegally-planted Vietnamese flags from the night before. In response to the Vietnamese attack on China's speedboat, China opened up its 100mm and 37mm cannons.
If the Chinese were as mean as you claim, they would never have bothered to send out a speedboat. They would have simply annihilated the Vietnamese with their 100mm cannons from long distance. China did not anticipate that Vietnamese were aggressive to the point of firing on Chinese sailors with Chinese frigates nearby. It is distasteful when Vietnamese nationalists refuse to accept the consequences of the foolish choices by their military.
I am tired of your annoying conspiracy theories and demonizing of China. I hearby label you a troll and will ignore you in the future.
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I can actually prove that the Vietnamese fired first. There is a 10-minute propaganda YouTube video made by Vietnamese nationalists with the help of an anti-Chinese German. In that propaganda video with 23,671 views, the narrator made it clear that the Vietnamese defenders took steps to defend the Vietnamese flags from Chinese attempts to remove them.
I am not posting the link to that video, because it's ten minutes of propaganda (e.g. lies about historical facts). It is not difficult to interpret what the Vietnamese-nationalist narrator meant by "took steps to defend the Vietnamese flags." The Vietnamese-nationalist is implying that the Vietnamese marines fired on the Chinese sailors that dared to try and remove the Vietnamese flags, which were attempts to claim sovereignty.
It makes me unhappy when someone does not debate in good faith. Vietnamese-nationalist "NiceGuy" is aware of the facts and he must have seen that 10-minute propaganda video. I label people trolls when they try to mislead others and raise doubts about basic facts.
