A large number of People’s Liberation Army troops have reportedly been spotted heading towards the China-Vietnam border as tensions between the two countries continue to escalate, reports Hong Kong’s Sing Tao Daily. Sing Tao Daily is generally considered to be aligned to Chinese state media.

Thousands of Chinese nationals living or on business in Vietnam have already fled the country amid anti-China riots, which were sparked by a tense standoff between Chinese and Vietnamese naval ships near a Chinese oil rig in disputed waters off the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea on May 4.

The Chinese foreign ministry confirmed Friday that at least two Chinese nationals have been killed and nearly a hundred were injured during violent protests last week that saw dozens of Chinese, Taiwanese and Hong Kong factories set on fire. The UK’s Guardian claims as many as 21 people have died.

As yet another large-scale anti-China protest was scheduled for Sunday, Chinese netizens reported seeing an “endless stream” of PLA soldiers in full combat gear at Chongzuo train station, apparently on their way to the 97-kilometre China-Vietnam border at Pingxiang city in southern China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. The soldiers were said to have been accompanied by tanks, armoured vehicles, missile launchers and other heavy artillery.

Pingxiang was where the Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979 began, and locals are reportedly preparing to evacuate the area out of fears of an imminent military conflict.

http://chinadailymail.com/2014/05/18/lar...vietnam-border/

Not to make light, but . . .

Wouldn't it be sweet if the Chinese got "bogged down" in Vietnam?

Pingxiang was where the Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979 began...

I recall how that war shook the foundations of Leftist thinking in Europe and America. Ideology has it that Marxism, which both countries claimed to practice, was internationalist in scope. Nationalism, ethnic hatreds, ancient animosities meant nothing in the face of the new brotherhood given life by the domination of Communism.

Uh, sorry, no. The Chinese-Vietnamese confrontation of that period illustrated only how little things had really changed. Now that's not to say all parties to the drivel of Karl weren't united against the United States, Christianity, and capitalism, but they weren't exactly in love with one another either.

So much for the fanciful tenets of Communism and internationalism. Back to the drawing board.