‘We will never forget’

[Jlaw]

‘We will never forget’: Anti-China sentiment simmers in Vietnam on anniversary of bloody border war that had no winner | South China Morning Post

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 17 February, 2016, 6:50pm

The commemoration took place even though large gatherings without government approval are often stopped by the police. There have been no official government commemorations of the war. Photo: Reuters



Vietnamese activists chanted anti-China slogans in Hanoi Wednesday as they marked the 37th anniversary of a border war with their giant neighbour, in a memorial that followed reports that Beijing has installed missile systems in contested seas.

The two communist countries are locked in a long-standing territorial dispute over the Paracel and Spratly islands in the South China Sea.

Vietnam’s premier is due to return home Wednesday after attending a summit hosted by the United States aimed at bolstering regional resolve in the face of China’s military muscle-flexing.

On Wednesday, Beijing defended the deployment of armaments in the South China Sea after Taiwan said surface-to-air missiles had been installed on a disputed island in the Paracel chain in the region.

A man plays the violin in front of a statue of Vietnam's Emperor Ly Thai To during a rally in Hanoi marking the 37th anniversary of the border war with China. Photo: EPA



In a pre-planned event, more than 100 people gathered in Hanoi to mark an older territorial conflict: China’s 1979 invasion of Vietnam’s northernmost provinces.

Security officials stood by as veterans chanted “down with China, down with China’s invasion.”

Thirty seven years ago, 600,000 Chinese troops invaded northern Vietnam to “teach Vietnam a lesson” for ousting the Beijing-backed Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. China withdrew its troops after a month, but both powers claimed victory.

Although Vietnam fetes its military victories over the French and American armies, it did not arrange any official events to mark the China border war - much to the chagrin of veterans and activists.

Anti-China activists hold a banner that reads: ‘February 17th, 1979 - we will never forget’. Photo: AFP



“We are very sad that there has never been any official organisation (memorial) for the day,” 64-year-old Vietnamese war veteran Pham Thanh said at Wednesday’s commemoration in central Hanoi, where demonstrators carried banners that read “we will never forget”.

Beijing’s increasingly assertive stance in contested waters has triggered public anger and rounds of protests in authoritarian Vietnam where the demonstrations are sometimes forcefully broken up.

China is also Vietnam’s largest trading partner, complicating Hanoi’s position towards its neighbour.

On Tuesday, US President Barack Obama announced plans to make his first state visit to Vietnam in May, which Vietnam’s foreign ministry hailed as “carrying Vietnam-US relations to new heights”.

You sure it's 600,000 troops because US spy satelltte show the number to be a lot less.

Never mind the famine of 1945 caused by France and Japan, Never mind the decades of being napalmed and sprayed with potent poisons and chemicals, never mind the sanctions by the west - All you Vietnamese remember is a small border war with China that you bought upon yourselves as well as a small group of Islands that your government signed over to the PRC.

Does any Vietnamese remember that it was with help from China that the French were expelled? The French who looted and robbed from vietnam with impunity much like the Belgians destroying the Congolese people?

Vietnam sold China down river during the Sino Soviet split. Blame shitty relations on yourselves.

Take it as a lesson for the Chinese people--Vietnam cannot be trusted then, now or the future.

 

[Daniel808]

Yes, Never Forget. That in 1956

Vietnam Government formally accepted that the Paracel and Spratly islands were historically Chinese territory. About the same time, the PLA re-established a Chinese garrison on Yongxing Island in the Paracels, while the Republic of China (China Taipei) put troops back on Taiping Island in the Spratly.

Never Forget

 

[Viet]

China still settle down 200,000 refugees from Vietnam in 1977-1979. In laws, they are still Vietnamese nationality.
They are witness of what Vietnam govt did.
About Cambodia-China relationship, I hope you can read Cambodian late Sihanouk king's books.

When, who, do what, where, and why, when you talk about a thing, mention those aspects, please.
"it was Cambodia that started the war against Vietnam on behalf and command from China."

Try again, my friend, when, who, where Cambodia started the war against Vietnam on behalf and command from China.

do you think a small fly like Cambodia would attack Vietnam without support from China?

yes, it is historically proven it was Cambodia that started the war.

our invasion of Cambodia in 1978 was a response to their aggression throughout 1977. 10,000 Chinese military advisers were captured alive and sent to prison camps when our tanks crushed the Khmer Army, rolling over their bodies. your hostilities began long ago when Communist China stopped all supports to North VN following Sino-USSR split in the 1960s, forcing North VN to take side. sure, VN made mistakes, too. I don´t deny it. but nevertheless it cannot be used an excuse for you to attack VN.

Cambodian–Vietnamese War - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Place Of Space]

do you think a small fly like Cambodia would attack Vietnam without support from China?

yes, it is historically proven it was Cambodia that started the war.

our invasion of Cambodia in 1978 was a response to their aggression throughout 1977. 10,000 Chinese military advisers were captured alive and sent to prison camps when our tanks crushed the Khmer Army, rolling over their bodies. your hostilities began long ago when Communist China stopped all supports to North VN following Sino-USSR split in the 1960s, forcing North VN to take side. sure, VN made mistakes, too. I don´t deny it. but nevertheless it cannot be used an excuse for you to attack VN.

Cambodian–Vietnamese War - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I advise you to read Cambodian coup of 1970 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Then, we start the discussion again. The Cambodian coup of 1970

 

[54ptu]

Yes please keep a good memory of it. That war was meant for a lesson to Vietnam after all.

 

[Viet]

I advise you to read Cambodian coup of 1970 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Then, we start the discussion again. The Cambodian coup of 1970

Why are you banned?

anyway I want to answer your question. At that time VN was still midst of a total war, north against south, with all foreign powers from America to Australia involved, east against western blocs. And of course including Cambodia and Laos, friends and enemies changing overnight. The Khmer people can be your friend today, but your enemy tomorrow. That's their mentality.

BUT all of this had nothing to do with China!

You cut relationship and support to North VN, ending everything. What do you have to do with Cambodia? Your have no business in VN.

 

[phancong]

Never forget with 1 month of border war against China, Vietnamese already forget Vietnam was the First Nation US used chemical weapons for mass killing in over 10 yrs of war. US drop the most carpet bombs in Vietnam that more than amount of bombs drop in ww2 combine.

 

[dichoi]

Shadow of Brutal ’79 War Darkens Vietnam’s View of China Relations
By JANE PERLEZJULY 5, 2014


.

LANG SON, Vietnam — She was 14 when Chinese artillery fire echoed across the hills around her home in northern Vietnam, and hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers swarmed across the border. She remembers sprinting with her parents through the peach trees, her waist-length hair flying, as they fled the invaders. They ran straight into the enemy.

Her mother was shot and killed in front of her; minutes later, her father was wounded. “I was horrified. I didn’t think I would survive. The bullets were flying all around. I could hear them and smell the gunfire,” said Ha Thi Hien, now 49, fluttering her hands so they grazed her head to show how close the bullets came on the first day of the short, brutal war.

The conflict between China and Vietnam in 1979 lasted less than a month. But the fighting was so ferocious that its legacy permeates the current sour relations between the two Communist countries now at odds over hotly contested waters in the South China Sea.
Both sides declared victory then, though neither side prevailed, and both armies suffered horrendous losses.

The gravestone of Ms. Hien’s mother, who was killed in the 1979 conflict with China. Ms. Hien’s father was wounded.CreditJustin Mott for The New York Times

If a war erupted over territorial rights and the recent positioning of a Chinese oil rig off the coast of Vietnam in the South China Sea, China, with its increasingly modernized navy, would likely win, military experts say. So in a situation some liken to that of Mexico astride the United States, Vietnam must exercise the art of living alongside a powerful nation, a skill it has practiced over several thousand years of intermittent occupation and more than a dozen wars with China.

But with China, far richer, militarily stronger and more ambitious than at any time the two countries have faced each other in the modern era, how far to needle Beijing, when to pull back, and how to factor in the United States are becoming trickier.

During the current tensions, the anti-Chinese sentiments of the Vietnamese people seem to have run ahead of the country’s ruling Politburo.

“People in Vietnam want to be outside China’s grip,” said Pham Xuan Nguyen, chairman of the Hanoi Literature Association, who protested against the oil rig outside the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi. “But the Vietnamese people are wondering what is the strategy of the government, and wondering if the government is really against China or compromising.”

In 2012, the United States secretary of defense, Leon E. Panetta, visited Cam Ranh Bay, the site of a major American base during the Vietnam War, but so far the Vietnamese military, still mindful of that war and years of antagonistic relations after it ended in 1975, has kept its distance.

Part of the aloofness is the result of a United States executive order that prohibits the sale of American weapons to Vietnam, a vestige of the Vietnam War. But Washington is showing increasing interest in lifting the ban, and the expected new United States ambassador to Vietnam, Ted Osius, who is awaiting confirmation from the Senate, said in testimony last month that easing the embargo should be considered.

For the moment, Vietnam buys weapons mainly from Russia, Israel and India. It has taken delivery of two Kilo-class submarines from Russia, and has ordered four more. Japan has pledged to provide coast guard vessels. In a move intended to encourage Vietnam to accept more from Washington, Secretary of State John Kerry announced $18 million in nonlethal aid for Vietnam’s maritime security during a visit in December.

Vietnam does not expect, or want, intervention by the United States, said Dang Dinh Quy, president of the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam. “We don’t expect help from anyone,” he said. “We are confident we can do it ourselves. We will keep to current strategies of trying to prevent a clash, and if it happens we will try to deal with it. We welcome all users of the South China Sea as long as they are conducive to preserving peace, stability and a legal order in the region.”

The shadow of the 1979 war, ordered by the Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping to punish Vietnam for its invasion of Cambodia, endures in places along the border. The memories are strong not only because of the death toll but also because the Chinese pummeled towns and villages as they withdrew, destroying schools and hospitals, in what the Chinese military later called a “goodbye kiss.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/06/world/asia/06vietnam.html?_r=0

 

[dichoi]

Yes, Never Forget. That in 1956

Vietnam Government formally accepted that the Paracel and Spratly islands were historically Chinese territory. About the same time, the PLA re-established a Chinese garrison on Yongxing Island in the Paracels, while the Republic of China (China Taipei) put troops back on Taiping Island in the Spratly.

Never Forget

Don't lie. It is fabrication of China. North VN didn't have right to say about Island of South VN from 1954 to 1975. It was related to 12 miles coastline of North VN and China only.

China stolen Vietnam's islands illegally with force in Vietnam war 1954-1975.

 

[Kiss_of_the_Dragon]

Vietnam will never forget this day because China will put this day on the reminder for Vietnam.

 

[Rechoice]

**According to whom have been to Cambodia,Cambodians hate viets.:p

Khmer Rouge genocide regime loves China.

 

[Gijoe]

Khmer Rouge genocide regime loves China.

Polpot is Vietnam best friend. Vietnamese backstab them and they start to do genocide only on Vietnamese. Why Vietcong backstab PolPot. The answer has explained many times, Vietcong want to annexed Cambodia. Polpot call on for china help, china warns Vietcong. Vietcong ignored, so the lesson had taught good on 1979. Next Viet-China war, please china do not spare any Vietcong life again.

 

[xunzi]

Shadow of Brutal ’79 War Darkens Vietnam’s View of China Relations
By JANE PERLEZJULY 5, 2014


.

LANG SON, Vietnam — She was 14 when Chinese artillery fire echoed across the hills around her home in northern Vietnam, and hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers swarmed across the border. She remembers sprinting with her parents through the peach trees, her waist-length hair flying, as they fled the invaders. They ran straight into the enemy.

Her mother was shot and killed in front of her; minutes later, her father was wounded. “I was horrified. I didn’t think I would survive. The bullets were flying all around. I could hear them and smell the gunfire,” said Ha Thi Hien, now 49, fluttering her hands so they grazed her head to show how close the bullets came on the first day of the short, brutal war.

The conflict between China and Vietnam in 1979 lasted less than a month. But the fighting was so ferocious that its legacy permeates the current sour relations between the two Communist countries now at odds over hotly contested waters in the South China Sea.
Both sides declared victory then, though neither side prevailed, and both armies suffered horrendous losses.

The gravestone of Ms. Hien’s mother, who was killed in the 1979 conflict with China. Ms. Hien’s father was wounded.CreditJustin Mott for The New York Times

If a war erupted over territorial rights and the recent positioning of a Chinese oil rig off the coast of Vietnam in the South China Sea, China, with its increasingly modernized navy, would likely win, military experts say. So in a situation some liken to that of Mexico astride the United States, Vietnam must exercise the art of living alongside a powerful nation, a skill it has practiced over several thousand years of intermittent occupation and more than a dozen wars with China.

But with China, far richer, militarily stronger and more ambitious than at any time the two countries have faced each other in the modern era, how far to needle Beijing, when to pull back, and how to factor in the United States are becoming trickier.

During the current tensions, the anti-Chinese sentiments of the Vietnamese people seem to have run ahead of the country’s ruling Politburo.

“People in Vietnam want to be outside China’s grip,” said Pham Xuan Nguyen, chairman of the Hanoi Literature Association, who protested against the oil rig outside the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi. “But the Vietnamese people are wondering what is the strategy of the government, and wondering if the government is really against China or compromising.”

In 2012, the United States secretary of defense, Leon E. Panetta, visited Cam Ranh Bay, the site of a major American base during the Vietnam War, but so far the Vietnamese military, still mindful of that war and years of antagonistic relations after it ended in 1975, has kept its distance.

Part of the aloofness is the result of a United States executive order that prohibits the sale of American weapons to Vietnam, a vestige of the Vietnam War. But Washington is showing increasing interest in lifting the ban, and the expected new United States ambassador to Vietnam, Ted Osius, who is awaiting confirmation from the Senate, said in testimony last month that easing the embargo should be considered.

For the moment, Vietnam buys weapons mainly from Russia, Israel and India. It has taken delivery of two Kilo-class submarines from Russia, and has ordered four more. Japan has pledged to provide coast guard vessels. In a move intended to encourage Vietnam to accept more from Washington, Secretary of State John Kerry announced $18 million in nonlethal aid for Vietnam’s maritime security during a visit in December.

Vietnam does not expect, or want, intervention by the United States, said Dang Dinh Quy, president of the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam. “We don’t expect help from anyone,” he said. “We are confident we can do it ourselves. We will keep to current strategies of trying to prevent a clash, and if it happens we will try to deal with it. We welcome all users of the South China Sea as long as they are conducive to preserving peace, stability and a legal order in the region.”

The shadow of the 1979 war, ordered by the Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping to punish Vietnam for its invasion of Cambodia, endures in places along the border. The memories are strong not only because of the death toll but also because the Chinese pummeled towns and villages as they withdrew, destroying schools and hospitals, in what the Chinese military later called a “goodbye kiss.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/06/world/asia/06vietnam.html?_r=0

Answer me. How many Vietnamese remember the Orange Agent vs the 1979 war?

 

[Kyle Sun]

a perfect trolling thread.

 

[Kiss_of_the_Dragon]

Polpot is Vietnam best friend. Vietnamese backstab them and they start to do genocide only on Vietnamese. Why Vietcong backstab PolPot. The answer has explained many times, Vietcong want to annexed Cambodia. Polpot call on for china help, china warns Vietcong. Vietcong ignored, so the lesson had taught good on 1979. Next Viet-China war, please china do not spare any Vietcong life again.

Ah...that's interesting....I learn every thing new each day