the conflict between china and vietnam can be traced back to end of american invasion. after the american withdrew vietnam developed closer ties with the soviet union and relation to china begin to deteriorate. By mid-1970's there were often exchange of fire between NVA and chinese border police. And in 1978 vietnam invaded cambodia so chinese decided to start a limited ground campaign to force the vietnamese to withdraw from cambodia
china's objectives:
-force vietnam to withdraw from cambodia
-after the cultral revolution troop's capability was a doubt, so Deng XiaoPing use vietnam as a training ground to enhance china's ground troops.
-show U.S.S.R's promise to vietnam was empty
-gain dispute territories along the border