https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Vietnamese_War#Fighting

As we all know, China ceased their invasion after they occupied most of the key cities and despite declaring that Hanoi was open for Chinese occupation, they simply withdrew by March 6th. And of course still had constant border conflicts since then, despite none of them drawing them into another conflict on the scale of the Sino-Vietnamese War and that Vietnam still was occupying Cambodia, China's ally, at the time. But what if China decides to still insist on fighting Vietnam by going straight to Hanoi? Will the Soviet Union take notice and threaten to intervene on Hanoi's behalf? Would this effect China's need to economically reform at the time?
 
Before the war started, Deng visited the US, Japan (twice), Thailand, and Singapore. All of them approved of his proposed action, that it would weaken Soviet influence in Asia. The Soviets made some threatening rhetoric, and China went as far as evacuating border regions. As the US helpfully provided satellite intelligence throughout the war, China became aware that the Vietnamese were creating a trap and feigning a retreat. Hence it made all the sense to declare victory and go home. And without US support, it's doubtful China would have started the war anyway.

Deng started the war for three reasons:
1) Dare the USSR into supporting an ally with which it just signed an alliance
2) Demonstrate to the US that China will be its ally against the USSR
3) Consolidate his own leadership over the Party

So, there's no reason for China to do anything more than OTL. The Soviets eventually airlifted some small weapons to Vietnam months after the fact.
 

Cook

Banned
Deng started the war for three reasons...

You missed the principal reason: Vietnam had just invaded Kampuchea and ousted China's ally Pol Pot from power. Granted, these days China's former support for the Khmer Rouge would be a bit of an embarrassment, but nevertheless they had been seen at the time as a valuable counterbalance to Hanoi's domination of Indo-China.

Vietnam still was occupying Cambodia, China's ally, at the time. But what if China decides to still insist on fighting Vietnam by going straight to Hanoi?

The Khmer Rouge were gone, and nothing the PLA could do was going to restore them to power; the border war was a punitive action only: to teach the Vietnamese a lesson lest they be too emboldened by success in Cambodia. Driving all the way to Hanoi, and remaining there, would have exposed China to a prolonged period of fighting with no benefit; the Chinese wouldn't have had the strength to conquer all of Vietnam, not quickly anyway, and nothing short of that would have stopped the Vietnamese from fighting. Doubtless the Soviet's would have provided aid, via Saigon rather than Ha Long Bay.
 
You missed the principal reason: Vietnam had just invaded Kampuchea and ousted China's ally Pol Pot from power. Granted, these days China's former support for the Khmer Rouge would be a bit of an embarrassment, but nevertheless they had been seen at the time as a valuable counterbalance to Hanoi's domination of Indo-China.
More recently it was revealed Deng was privately disgusted at the Khmer Rouge. Supporting Kampuchea was a pretext for attacking Vietnam (as was the mistreatment of ethnic Chinese in Vietnam, but Pol Pot targeted the ethnic Chinese in Kampuchea for extermination despite he himself being one), but the real reasons were far greater.

The Khmer Rouge were gone, and nothing the PLA could do was going to restore them to power; the border war was a punitive action only: to teach the Vietnamese a lesson lest they be too emboldened by success in Cambodia. Driving all the way to Hanoi, and remaining there, would have exposed China to a prolonged period of fighting with no benefit; the Chinese wouldn't have had the strength to conquer all of Vietnam, not quickly anyway, and nothing short of that would have stopped the Vietnamese from fighting. Doubtless the Soviet's would have provided aid, via Saigon rather than Ha Long Bay.
Ironically, China supported North Vietnam to keep the US in a quagmire, but privately didn't want to see Vietnam's reunification. It knew that a united Vietnam would immediately become hostile to it, socialist fraternity notwithstanding. It made zero sense to do more than OTL's "pre-emptive strike".
 
The Khmer Rouge were gone, and nothing the PLA could do was going to restore them to power; the border war was a punitive action only: to teach the Vietnamese a lesson lest they be too emboldened by success in Cambodia. Driving all the way to Hanoi, and remaining there, would have exposed China to a prolonged period of fighting with no benefit; the Chinese wouldn't have had the strength to conquer all of Vietnam, not quickly anyway, and nothing short of that would have stopped the Vietnamese from fighting. Doubtless the Soviet's would have provided aid, via Saigon rather than Ha Long Bay.

I know for a fact that China had no intentions of conquering all of Vietnam from the get go but rather pressure them to leave Cambodia at once. Come to think of it, I'm surprised that China chose to withdraw rather than just head straight to the capital since they have the upper hand in terms of numbers (but not tactics).
 
Top