| China and Vietnam are neighboring countries whose"mountains and rivers are connected, cultures are interlinked, the ideals are the same, the benefit is related"(from President Hu Jintao).The relationship between two countries has always been very friendly. However, the land boundary issue of the two countries has not been solved properly and reasonably in the process of communication between China and Vietnam for a rather long history, which has direct influence on the healthy development of the two country's relationship and become the main factor that hinders the normal relationship development between the two countries.Chinese and Vietnamese land boundary issue is a historical problem aroused from the communication of the two countries. In 1968, the Ding Tribe established the"Da Qu Yue"Empire. Since then, the conflicts between China and Vietnam were commonly seen for the boundary dispute. However, as Vietnam has always been an auxiliary country of China under the Ancestor fence System, the boundary issue did not rouse much attention. As a result, the length of the boundary between China and Vietnam has always in elastic state or in a vogue state, which can also be called Elastic boundary or Vogue boundary. From 1886 to 1897, Qing dynasty government and the French government that governed the area at that time had ordain the land boundary wholly for the first time in the history, which made the boundary between China and Vietnam become Treaty Boundary. But as this boundary line was signed by the Qing dynasty government and the French government the Sovereign State, to some extent it harmed the territorial sovereignty of Vietnam. So, Vietnamese felt great dissatisfaction with the result of this compartment of Chinese and Vietnamese land boundary. This also became the foreshadowing of the conflicts of Chinese and Vietnamese land boundary.After the foundation of the New Government of China, China and Vietnam has kept friendly relationships as"comrade and brother"for a long time during 1949 to 1969, and in fact China has assumed the responsibility of directing and helping the development of Vietnamese'socialist revolution and constructions. Under that historical background, both two countries were not willing to refer to the boundary issue and dodged the problem.After 1969, the Chinese and Vietnamese relations worsen gradually. Once the two countries transformed the friendship of "comrades and brothers" into confrontation of"drawing the pistol to each other". During this period, the Vietnamese Government started to make public Sino-Vietnamese land boundary issues to the world and selected an quite irrational method (such as making harassment and provoking in the disputed area) to express their demand for the disputed area of both countries land boundary. Facing the constant harassment and provocation of Vietnamese, the Chinese Government proposed that we could carry on the land boundary negotiations with Vietnam, and this suggestion was accepted by Vietnamese government. From 1977 to 1979, in Beijing and Hanoi China and Vietnam successively carried on two multi-wheel deputy ministers level negotiations about two countries international affairs, including land boundary problem's many questions. As China and Vietnam had fundamental differences in their concerns and the focuses could not agreed at all by two countries, China and Vietnam's two rounds vice foreign ministerial level talks ended in failure.After these negotiations, the Chinese and Vietnamese relations worsen continually, both countries already had not existed continue possibly to carry on the negotiations and consultation any longer. Therefore, when the Vietnamese Government in 1981 proposed to restore the two countries deputy minister-level negotiations with China, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted the Vietnamese Embassy Stationed in China in September 7 of this year and rejected this proposition. Hereafter, referring to the reopening negotiations of Vietnamese proposition and some rumor in the international community that China and Vietnam had the secret contact, the related Chinese officers reiterated many times that before Vietnam not promising and announcing that all troops would withdraw from Cambodia and putting into real actions, China and Vietnam would be impossible to talk. Since then until 1990, China and Vietnam hadn't had any negotiations on the Sino-Vietnamese border and other issues with Vietnam. Since the late 1980s, the world has changed greatly and constantly, first was the Eastern European great change, and latter was Soviet Union to collapse. As quite few of socialist countries in the world, both China and Vietnam deeply felt the grim situation. Especially Vietnam, after having lost this backer of Soviet, had already earnestly felt the existence of threat. In this historical background, Vietnam started to change diplomatic policies, showed good will to china frequently and made a decision finally that Vietnam would withdraw all Vietnamese army from Cambodia. After this, solid ice of confrontations spanning between two governments and two parties of China and Vietnam is melting, gate of the Chinese and Vietnamese normalization is also soon being opened.In 1990, the leaders of Chinese and Vietnamese held "Chengdu Talks," which made China and Vietnam to achieve the great changes of "ending the past and opening the future", and further promoted the normalization of Sino-Vietnamese relations in the historical process. Since then, land boundary negotiations of Chinese and Vietnamese formally began. Then, in order to resolve the land boundary problems of both countries truly, reasonably and properly, China and Vietnam has held two round expert-level negotiations, six round government-level boundary negotiations, 16 round land boundary Joint working group talks and 3 round land working group talks on the affairs of drafting the Land Border Treaty, all these are just wanted to advance the negotiation process. At the same time, the governments of both Chinese and Vietnamese also timely adopted many kinds of forms, such as government diplomacy, the inter-party diplomacy, the civil diplomacy and the parliamentary diplomacy, etc. to enhance mutual trust and cooperation of both countries and civil, hoping to promote the positive development of the land border negotiations from each aspect. On December 30, 1999, "Chinese and Vietnamese Land Boundary Treaty" could sign in Hanoi. At last, China and Vietnam solved the land boundary problem reasonably, properly, through he peaceful means, the problem has puzzled both countries and their people for many years.According to the referred agreements of "Chinese and Vietnamese Land Boundary Treaty", the Chinese and Vietnamese Union Border Survey Committee started to organize the work of surveying and setting up stones in November, 2000. In the beginning of the work of demarcation built, both the two governments and the technical staff who were responsible for the specific demarcation felt quite optimistic for the plan which would complete the border survey work in three years. However, due to dual constraints of natural conditions and political conditions in the border areas, the Chinese and Vietnamese land boundary negotiations were hard to carry on. After six years in painstaking investigation in the boundary area, to December 31, 2007, there were still 15% of the survey, demarcation and as-built work not completed. For the above-mentioned difficulties producing in the process of surveying the border and setting up the boundary tablet, the Chinese and Vietnamese Government is actively working and striving to be in the first half of 2008 for completion of land border demarcation and erection of boundary markers work.After the relationship between China and Vietnam becoming normalization, both countries after having experienced nine-year land boundary negotiations and nearly eight-year border demarcation-built work, China and Vietnam has been basically resolved the land boundary issues. The solution of Chinese and Vietnamese land boundary issues a quite significant event in the history of the development. Its significance mainly includes the following aspects: (1) It plays a very important role in promoting the Sino-Vietnamese bilateral friendly relations, the further mutual political trust and bilateral economic and trade cooperation to get further development. (2) It is also very important for stabilizing the situation in Chinese southern border and relieving homeland security threat of Chinese southern border. (3) The Chinese and Vietnamese land boundary issues have been solved through the peacefully, reasonably and properly, it is also advantageous to counter-attack the shameless slander of"the Chinese deterrence theory", and helpful to China establish a positive image as a responsible big country in the world. (4) It also are of great reference for China dealing with the land boundary issues of Chinese and Indian, Chinese and Bhutan, and developing of relations with neighboring countries. In addition, it also supplies many experiences to use for reference: (1)The both countries boundary issues'reasonable solution must take both countries country relations normalcy as the basic premise.(2)The principle of mutual understanding and accommodation is a very important principle which has formed in the Sino-Burma boundary negotiations after New China being founded, has been already applied widely to all affairs which were produced with Chinese and its surrounding countries, and is playing more and more important role. (3) In the process of dealing with border issues with neighboring countries, especially border issues with socialism neighboring countries, we should correctly handle relations between inter-party diplomacy and government diplomacy, and make full use of government diplomacy, political party diplomacy, parliamentary diplomacy and civil diplomacy and many other diplomatic forms to promote bilateral cooperation of mutual trust and development, so as to speed up the border issues resolved in a reasonable manner. This is another important experience in the process of the Sino-Vietnamese land border negotiations.The boundary problems between China and the surrounding countries including Chinese and Vietnams have been solved reasonably since the New China was established. It is an important action to develop national relations with the neighboring countries positively and to stable peripheral security environment. We should note that in the process of handling the boundary problems, the New China has not only the experience and the significance, but also has the lessons and insufficiency. The primary problems lie in: (1) Since the New China was established, the Chinese Government's attitude treating the unequal treaty is ambiguous. (2)The historical practice proves that the boundary problem does not generally initiate purely by concerning countries' boundary dispute, but is the refraction that the national relations are normal or not, are the barometer and the touchstone of geography neighboring country relations. Therefore, when handling the territory boundary problem with the geography neighboring countries, we should not put more energy in the reasonable division of the boundary line and mutual understanding and mutual accommodation, should not anticipate excessively the positive sense of the boundary after the concession to the national security, but should put in further advancement in mutual confidence and cooperation between China and the country concerned at each level and each domain, and develop more thorough and lasting friendly relations with these countries. (3)Since the World War II, institutional flaws existing in the socialist countries relations model have caused the relations between the countries communist parties being in power in the condition of abnormal upper and lower layers. The countries produce the contradiction extreme easily because of the national interests and conflicts of the internationalism principles.
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