The Recent Sino-Vietnamese Mutual Perceptions In The View Of Asymmetry

There is usually a separation of research in understanding the history of Chinese recent foreign relations. The traditional researches that focus on colonial wars and nationalism movements often made the origin and stages of modern China separated according to several foreign wars by China and the West. As the surrounding countries which in the long historical period with a close relationship, Korea, Vietnam and Ryukyu had experienced as the same misfortune as China in modern period. The course of breaking away from traditional relationship with China of those countries might become the periodical appendant of China’s steps toward semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, by the past researches understanding. In order to avoid the simplistic and Sinocentric view of obversation on Vietnam in sino-french negotiations, which put Vietnam in an affiliated position, this research will take the view of mutual perception between China and Vietnam as a single case study, and will rethink the transition of Chinese foreign relation especially of Chinese neighboring foreign relation in modern period. Particularly, the transition of traditional perception by Vietnam and this by China will be put in one theory system and will have the same importance by the view mentioned above.The Sino Vietnamese relations under traditional order system could be regarded as an asymmetric structure which is a binary simplized form in discribing the relation between or among countries. There are two actors which one is strong power while another is weak in this structure. The relation between two actors is usually fluctuant but both of them will sustain their status of asymmetric relationship, instead of the annexation by the strong power to the weak side. The Sino Vietnamese relations confirm with the assumption of asymmetric stucture, which is frequently affected by relation fluctuation that caused by the disparity of perception in four factors between China and Vietnam, but this structure generally kept stable. Further, the comparison of capability level and will level of China and Vietnam is mentioned, which the article emphasized their disparities:China performed a fluctuant status of capability and a high level of will, while Vietnam performed a fluctuant status of will and a low level of capability. According to this result of comparison, asymmetric structure will be broken in by external power from the weak part more easily.The French colonial war to Vietnam in 19th century was a very important external power to the Sino Vietnamese asymmetric struture, which created different attitudes and strategies between those two countries. The attitude and policy of China went uncompromising gradually from dove tactics at the beginning, which reflected the high level of will on maintaining the asymmetry system by China. Oppositely, Vietnam had its resistant policy and sought China’s reinforcements for times, and also had persued a transigent policy to France. But Vietnam had no sufficient capabilities to maintain the traditional relationship in any case of having a strong or a weak aspiration in mind. However, the traditional Sino Vietnamese relation hadn’t gone collapsed but strengthened because of two factors:one is the inertial understanding of continueing the suzerain-feudatory relationship by China, and another is the refuse of French protectorate to Vietnam.With the further deterioration of the situation in Vietnam, China showed the war tendency to France gradually under the voice of maintaining the southwest portal and peripheral defense of China, which the hawk group made their sound. One hand, the acception to modern international system made China started a new pattern of negotiations with the western countries. On the other hand, the mutual adaptation by China and Western system tributed to the continuation of Chinese traditional perception, and encouraged the attention that put peripheral countries back into traditional order by China. Because of the French military plotting in Northern Qi of Vietnam during the Sino French negotiation, and the negation of Chinese nominal suzerainty to Vietnam by French Vietnamese peace treaty in 1884, China began to persue the reality of military control in Northern Qi by series of military actions that adapting the situation of Vietnam. Finally, the defeat of military action on land made the hawk group in China lost the policy making status. With the compromise and agreement between China and France, China at last lost the suzerainty to Vietnam in fact.The Sino French war was an significant external contributor for the disintegration of Chinese traditional world view fundamentally, and as the opportunity of the traditional relationship termination between China and Vietnam, the modern nation and national consciousness rose up which had three details of the modern understanding transition. First, the lost of Vietnam was the very first time China failed in the war of its vassal states preservation against the West, which made further Chinese border crisis and shock the Chinese traditional world view in the root. Thus as the introspection of modern nation construction in the intelligentsia, the Westernized Chinese Style started to be questioned generally. Second, the Chinese modern sovereignty consciousness was established because of the contraction of power range from wide peripheral ereas to the inner side of territory, and the Chinese foreign relationship was extended from the internal affairs as the unit on a nation base, because of the self decline from the tributary system center to common country. Third, Vietnam which broke away from the traditional order and from its suzerain under the French colonial rule, strengthened its consciousness of independence and modern nationalism trendency, and developed its unique path of culture after the late 19th century, thus made the separation of direction from the coessential culture to idiosyncratic cultures between China and Vietnam.