WI: China invades Laos in the early 80's?

[Ismailov]

China sponsored various small insurgent groups in 1980's Laos, while the strongest group, the Hmong, were a significant problem for the Laotian government.

What would happen if China were to invade Laos? Presumably to put pressure on the Vietnamese who were in Kampuchea.

 

[Carl Schwamberger]

Invasion might be the wrong word. Building a automotive road suitable for heavy traffic (military traffic) into Laos would outflank Vietnam to some extent. The Laotian communists have been very isolationist, so making them Chinese 'Allies' is difficult but not impossible. Building up the Laotian army instead of sending a lot of Chinese soldiers south might be better.

 

[Zajir]

Laos was a vietnamese satelite, there is no way that it's going to allow chinese soldiers on its soil in the 1980s.

 

[Ismailov]

Laos was a vietnamese satelite, there is no way that it's going to allow chinese soldiers on its soil in the 1980s.

Well yeah, but I think the main difference is that:

1. The Chinese in 1979 had tried (and failed) to invade Vietnam to get them to leave Kampuchea.
2. Laotian government is presumably a fair bit less popular than the post-Pol Pot government in Kampuchea.
3. China would be invading Laos in this case, not Vietnam.
4. If Vietnam does retaliate then the Vietnamese would be fighting a multiple-front war.

 

[Ariosto]

Is it even possible for the Chinese to invade Laos, terrain-wise? I would think they would still have to go through Vietnam to get there.
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[Ismailov]

Is it even possible for the Chinese to invade Laos, terrain-wise? I would think they would still have to go through Vietnam to get there.
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Apparently the PLA was specifically trained in mountain warfare.

 

[La Rouge Beret]

I think that at this stage you would require a change in the leadership of the Chinese Politburo. As by the early 1980's Deng Xiaoping is concentrating on opening up China economically and would have given short shrift to anything that deviated from that course.

Personally I think trying to change the Laotian communists from a Vietnamese orbit and into the Chinese one is possible - although difficult.

 

[snali]

if a Chinese invasion happens the USSR could be drawn to it militarily or not and this division could be used america advantage