The Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia and establishment of a
pro-Vietnamese regime in Phnom Penh upset the strategic balance in
Southeast Asia, to the anger of China and alarm of Thailand and other
ASEAN states. The PRC did not respond immediately, however, as its
military forces were not yet in place. Not until mid-February was China
ready ‘to teach the Vietnamese a lesson’, by which time Chinese leaders
had notified Washington that the invasion was imminent, and Moscow
that it would be of short duration for limited objectives. This greatly
reduced the risk of Soviet retaliation. The invasion itself was described
as a ‘self-defensive counter attack’ in response to violations of the
Sino–Vietnamese border by Vietnamese forces, though this was obvi-
ously not its real aim. The invasion had a strategic purpose to warn
Moscow not to go too far in its support of Vietnam; a political purpose
to reassure the Thai in particular that China was a reliable ally; and a
military purpose to force Vietnam to commit troops on a second front
and so relieve the pressure on the Cambodian resistance. There may
also have been an internal political dimension. But the principal
reason, as the Chinese themselves repeatedly stated, was to ‘punish’
Vietnam, and this needs further explanation.
The form of language is itself revealing. ‘Punishment’, to ‘teach
a lesson’, is what parents do to obstreperous children, and carries with
it strong moral overtones. A child who has erred needs correction;
it needs to be taught the proper way to behave. Historically, China arro-
gated to itself the right to dictate how vassal kingdoms should behave.
It did so from a position of assumed moral superiority that was never
subjected to criticism, and still is not even in modern Chinese histori-
ography.^5 Punishment was regretfully necessary, but there was never any
doubt that China was morally justified in meting it out, as superior to
inferior. These attitudes were palpably present in the Chinese decision
to ‘punish’ Vietnam, and the Vietnamese were well aware of it. The
irony was, that although they did not use the same language, similar
attitudes were present in Vietnam’s relations with Cambodia, where
they were equally resented.
Fresh beginnings