Chinese legal scholar in the Warring States Period Han Feizi once said this sentence, which is still of reference for some small countries that do not have the advantage of geographical location, that is,: countries are small but not in a humble state, have little strength but not fear the strong, are rude and insulting big neighbors, and are greedy and stubborn but clumsy friends, can be destroyed.
The changes in the geopolitical pattern around China over the past century have proved this irrefutable truth, especially for the neighboring countries in southern China: Vietnam .
Looking at the geographical characteristics and surrounding situation of Vietnam, we will find that Vietnam is destined to be difficult to become enemies of China. and once it makes an irrational choice, then what awaits it will surely be a failed ending.
So, why do we say that from a geographical perspective, Vietnam is destined to be China's opponent? What lessons have Vietnam, which has made a wrong choice in history, learned?
Today, this episode will take you to watch: Vietnam’s geopolitical pattern.
(Vietnam Army)
Vietnam is a socialist country located in the Indochina Peninsula region of Southeast Asia. It is located in the tropical monsoon climate zone. It is adjacent to China to the north, and to the west, it is adjacent to Cambodia and Laos . The east and south face the South China Sea and Gulf of Siam respectively. has a population of 96 million and a land area of 331,200 square kilometers, making it the 67th in the world.
Looking at Vietnam's territory, we will find the geographical characteristics of Vietnam's narrow and narrow territory, which makes Vietnam's coastline and its border with neighboring countries very long. Among them, the border between Vietnam and my country is 1,347 kilometers long, and the border with Laos and Cambodia is 1,650 kilometers and 930 kilometers long, respectively. Vietnam's north and south coastline is 3,260 kilometers long, which makes Vietnam rank alongside Chile and Norway as the "three countries with the narrowest north and south coastlines in the world" .
The geographical characteristics of north and south are obvious for Vietnam: the advantage of is that the narrow coastline provides Vietnam with many coastal ports. In today's globalized ocean-going trade era, these ports are destined to be the country's economic growth points and can radiate and drive inland surrounding areas.
In addition, on the long border line with neighboring countries, Vietnam can also carry out land border trade, and makes up for the shortcomings of foreign exchanges in inland areas.
(Vietnam Port)
But if Vietnam had such narrow and narrow geographical characteristics as the north and south of Vietnam would have a military disadvantage. If Vietnam wants to defend its long border, it must invest a lot of manpower and material resources on such borders.
In the 1970s, Vietnam successively provoked border conflicts and even wars against Laos, Cambodia and even China, which forced Vietnam to use most of the country's resources and for military construction at that time. The number of militias and regular soldiers once exceeded 3 million, causing Vietnam to miss the opportunity for development in the last century.
However, if you deploy full force on its narrow and narrow border line in the north and south, it will be difficult for Vietnam to ensure that its border line will not be broken through. If we carefully observe the Vietnam map, we will find that although Vietnam's territory is narrow and long in the north and south, the openings of the east and west wings are very wide. Among them, Vietnam is adjacent to my country's northern provinces: Guangning Province Its widest Chamdo can reach 600 kilometers.
This means that although Vietnam's border line is narrow and long, and its terrain is rugged, it is easy to defend and difficult to attack, it is still far from the level of "one man is at the pass, and ten thousand men cannot open it". If a war breaks out between China and Vietnam in the future, China can divide troops into multiple directions in the vast northern region of Vietnam, launch the " clamp-shaped offensive " and drive straight into Vietnam.
In fact, in self-defense counterattack against Vietnam in 1979, our army adopted the tactic of splitting troops east and west, and carried out a centripetal breakthrough from northern Vietnam. It took only 3 hours to break through Vietnam's borders.
Some friends may not help but ask: Since the Chinese People's Liberation Army adopted such a tactic based on the Vietnamese terrain in its self-defense counterattack against Vietnam, it quickly defeated Vietnam. So why didn’t the US military think of this idea in Vietnam War from the 1960s to the 1970s?
This is actually related to the differences in the departure location of the armies of China and the United States and the north and south terrain of Vietnam. In the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam, the Chinese People's Liberation Army fought from north to south; and in the Vietnam War, the US military fought from south to north.
Although the eastern and western openings in the northern part of Vietnam are very wide, they are completely opposite in the southern and central parts of Vietnam. For example, the narrowest areas in the east and west of Vietnam, Guang Ping Province has an east-west width of only 48 kilometers. Therefore, people also call Vietnam's narrow and long north and south narrow terrain "a shoulder pole carries two baskets." , and the southern part of Vietnam is closer to the equator, with a more obvious tropical climate, and dense rainforests and swamps, which makes it more difficult for the US military to break through the North Vietnamese defense line.
Reviewing the Vietnam War, which has passed for more than 60 years, we will find that the US military at that time was not without a chance of victory, because from a geographical point of view, another weak link in Vietnam's defense was on its same long coastline.
In June 1950, Korean War broke out, and the Korean People's Army defeated the South Korean army and approached South Korea's last line of defense: Busan . After the US military interfered in the situation on the peninsula, avoided direct confrontation with the vigorous Korean People's Army. Instead, it launched a login to in Incheon on the Korean Peninsula in September 1950, thus cutting the Korean People's Army in half, and for a while reversed the offensive and defensive trend of the Korean War. It was not until October 1950 that the Chinese People's Volunteer Army secretly entered North Korea that the situation of the war changed.
(Incheon landing)
For Vietnam, whose coastline is narrower than the Korean Peninsula, if the US military that confronted it back then also fabricated the tactics of "Incheon landing", then the Vietnamese People's Army might also suffer a catastrophe.
So, why didn’t the US military adopt such a wonderful plan at that time? This is because our country had issued a warning to the United States at that time: requires the US military to not cross the 17th latitude on the Vietnam battlefield. If the US military crosses the line regardless of the warning, then what awaits them will be another new Korean War.
Perhaps it was because of China's warning that the US military could not help but recall the nightmare on the battlefield from 1950 to 1953. made them dare not concoct the "Incheon Landing" tactic to attack North Vietnam in the 20-year-old Vietnam War. Why did the main force of the Vietnamese People's Army survive the war and avoid the same fate as the main force of the Korean People's Army back then? Vietnam may really thank China for this.
Although Vietnam's coastline is very narrow, its territorial waters are very limited, which creates the second limitation of Vietnam's geopolitical areas on the ocean.
The reason why territorial waters have become Vietnam's geopolitical "shortcoming" is that The division of territorial waters of the United Nations follows the principle of "12 nautical miles", that is, The territorial waters of a country are within 12 nautical miles of the country's land, continental shelf and islands extending outward. Although Vietnam's coastline is narrow and long, the domestic rivers are short and fast, the water deposition effect is not significant, and the sea-to-sea islands are very sparse. This makes Vietnam's territorial waters only limit the range of 12 nautical miles outwards of its own mainland.
In contrast, although China's South China Sea and East China Sea are very far away from the mainland of China, China's rivers generally have vast river basins, large sand content, and more obvious flowing water sedimentation. There are many Haikou Delta, resulting in many new islands in Haikou continuously radiating outward according to the 12 nautical miles range, resulting in the unique landscape on the map of "China's South China Sea is close to many neighboring countries in Southeast Asia".
Facing the dilemma of running to other countries' territorial waters without taking a few steps, Vietnam was helpless. As land reclamation technology gradually matures in recent years, Vietnam has begun to try to continuously expand its 12 nautical miles by building "artificial land", but this also makes it difficult for it to avoid friction with its neighboring countries. In addition to China, Vietnam and many Southeast Asian countries such as Cambodia, Thailand, and Indonesia, have disputes over sea area development.
(Vietnam land reclamation project)
Although Vietnam's land area is not a big country and it faces many headaches of geographical problems, Vietnam's geographical location in the global landscape has made it the focus of competition among several big countries in recent century.
Ming Chengzu D reigned during the reign of Zhu Di, Ming Dynasty At the request of the remnants of the Chen Dynasty in Vietnam, they sent troops to overthrow the Hu regime. After that, the Ming Chengzu established the Ministry of Political Envoys in Vietnam, and listed it as a local administrative region under the jurisdiction of China, thereby strengthening the influence of the Ming Dynasty on Southeast Asian countries during Zheng He's voyage to the West. After the death of Zhu Di, the Ming Dynasty Emperor Chengzu, a "Blue Mountain Uprising" broke out in Vietnam, and the Ming army stationed in Vietnam was expelled, but the Ming and Vietnam still maintained a vassal relationship.
1884 After the outbreak of the Sino-French War, France ended the vassal status established by China in Vietnam for a hundred years, making Vietnam its own Far East colony . France used this as a springboard to infiltrate power into Yunnan, Guangxi and other places in China. This is a humiliating and dark page in the modern history of China and Vietnam. In 1940, after France was defeated by Nazi Germany on the European continent, Japan took the opportunity to occupy Vietnam and blocked the Yunnan-Vietnam Highway with foreign aid to China.
1945, after Japan's defeat, French colonists made a comeback, but with the heroic struggle of the Vietnamese people and the support of the Chinese people, the French army was completely expelled from Indochina Peninsula. 955, the United States took over France's position and tried to use Vietnam as a springboard to deter China in the south. , but under the heroic struggle of the people of Vietnam and China, the United States' conspiracy failed in the end.
But after the end of this war, Vietnam still failed to change its destiny to become a game field for a great power. In the 1970s, in order to expand its sphere of influence, the Soviet Union strongly supported Vietnam, prompting Vietnam to occupy Laos and Cambodia, and launched many provocations on the Sino-Vietnam border, causing Vietnam to fall into the abyss of war again. Until the 1990s, Vietnam, which was highly militarized, gradually became a normal developing country.
So, in the face of many shortcomings in Vietnam's own geopolitical situation, is there a possibility of Vietnam breaking the deadlock? In fact, Vietnamese leaders have tried to make such efforts in history. For example, The pioneer of of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh , once conceived that Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia would establish an "Indochina Federation" to minimize the shortcomings of Vietnam's land in the north and south.
Ho Chi Minh's idea is indeed feasible: But unfortunately, after his death, Vietnam embarked on the path of realizing this idea in the form of war annexation, which ultimately brought profound disasters to the people of its own country and its neighbors.
In an era with peace and development as the theme, if Vietnam wants to break through its own geographical location, what it can do is to take advantage of its narrow and narrow coastline advantages to vigorously develop the port trade economy and play its role as a hub for transportation in Southeast Asia. At the same time, in the form of trade between neighboring countries, we will promote the integration of the economy of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. In addition, we will have good diplomacy with China, the northern neighbor. In this way, Vietnam's rise in this century is not impossible.
Looking at the world geography and history, The geography of a country may bring many challenges to the development of the country, but this does not put a country in a disadvantage forever. If the country can seize the opportunity and rise peacefully in the global game, it can also turn the world around and become an emerging force in the wave of multipolarization.
