Research On The Transition Of Chinese Border Cities’ Function

City function serves for a country’s political, economical, cultural developmentrequirements which is given by the state. The border city, as a special city type, its function notonly decided by the state, but heavily influenced by the international relations. In the process ofhistorical development, the Sino-Vietnamese border city is an important geographic factor inSino-Vietnamese relations. It has witnessed the two countries’ relations from peace to war, andthen to the normalization. Similarly, the changing of the countries’ relations also results to thechanging of border cities’ functions, which is from the initial tributary channel to the followingbattlefield, and then to current platform of economic cooperation. The purpose of this article is todescribe the formation and transitions of border cities’ function in the perspective ofSino-Vietnamese relations, and try to conclude the characteristics and significants of thetransitions.This article first adopts geopolitical theory and sub-national actors theory to research bordercities’ function. The second part reviews the historical developments of Sino-Vietnameserelations, and then outlines the general conclusion of border cities’ function. The third to the fifthchapter are the section of case study. Apart from the brief introduction of Pingxiang city, thissection mainly details the traditional and neoteric functions of Pingxiang city with respect toSino-Vietnamese relations. While the last section summarizes on the conclusions of the wholearticle.This article bases on the general research and the case study, and concluding thatSino-Vietnamese relations affect the contents and intensity of the border cities’ function. In mostof time, the cities’ functions show a passive adjustment to the countries’ relations. However, withSino-Vietnamese relations entering into a new stage, the cities’ functions are upgrading andexpanding, it has actively participated in the Sino-Vietnamese relations.