What if China, and the Vietnamese, was able to beat the French, and stop them from making Northern Vietnam a French colony.
How would you propose they do that?
I think the best way to compete is to avoid the war all together, have the agreement to partition Vietnam into separate sphere of influences between the Chinese and the French would be a great start.
That's about as likely as asking the modern US to partition Mexico, Saudi Arabia or Japan into separate sphere of influences.
profxyz
Well considering that the OTL result of the campaign brought down the Ferry government (via the 'Tonkin Affair'), we can probably assume that French public opinion was not particularly enamored of either colonialism or intervention in Tonkin, and so a French battlefield defeat could conceivably lead to an Adwa-like situation where, even though French power was far from exhausted, it nevertheless concedes a loss.
Also we can't discount the possibility of the French making stupid moves, like attacking the Nanyang Fleet in Shanghai which would have probably drawn immediate Western condemnation.
I don't think Siam declaring war on France would help since that would just turn the whole affair into a 'war for national honor' or something similar.
What if China, and the Vietnamese, was able to beat the French, and stop them from making Northern Vietnam a French colony.
perhaps have the Chinese twin ironclads Dingyuan and Zhenyuan released earlier and that in itself would have given food for thought for the French. Although for both ships to play a role in the Sino - French conflict would also rely on the Beiyang fleet being deployed in support of the Nanyang Fleet.
If Siam or Laos tries to fight with the Tonkin against France, I think there's someone a bit on the west who would be veeeeery happy. From my feel, if Laos and Siam were to divert forces to Tonkin, wouldn't that weaken them against the Brits?
So they conquer it, as in, have forts at the frontiers but don't really hold the land. Then the fighting becomes so tough that they have to go away. If you can't hold the land enough to exploit the coal and the rubber trees, both things that take a bit of time and investment, what's the point?
The interesting thing about this idea is that it's the opposite of the Italian experience in Abyssinia, there, a big battlefield defeat was needed to justify the Italians quit. Slow bleed guerrilla warfare does not seem to have done as much to drive imperialists away in the 19th century, in part probably because local political actors had less political discipline and patience than professional guerrillas in the later 20th century.
There was considerable sympathy for China in Europe, and the Chinese were able to hire a number of British, German and American army and navy officers as advisers.
In February 1885, under diplomatic pressure from China, Britain invoked the provisions of the 1870 Foreign Enlistment Act and closed Hong Kong and other ports in the Far East to French warships.
What if China, and the Vietnamese, was able to beat the French, and stop them from making Northern Vietnam a French colony.