By 1989, Vietname was in the hopeless situation. They had been fighting two wars for 10 years - with Cambodia resistance backed by China and Thailand, and with Chinese at Vietnamese north border, their economy went from bad to worse. The worst came that the stream of Soviet military and economic aids were drying up, day by day. Vietname was at the verge of collapse.
In October of 1989, Lao's leader came to visit China, he asked for an unarranged meeting with Deng during his stay. Deng agreed to give him a courtesy meeting but supposed 10 min talk turned into a 40 min one. Lao's leader relayed Vietnamese leader, Nguy Van Linh's message that Vietname set two things as the highest priority - withdraw from Cambodia and improve relationship with China, he asked Deng to issue an invitation to him to visit China. Deng didn't give the invitation but said he hope Sino-Vietname could resolve their problem before his total retirement, but Vietname must completely withdraw from Cambodia.Deng also expressed that he doesn't want to cope with Nguyen Co Thach - Vietname's then foreign minister, main pro-Soviet figure in Vietcon party.
Lao's leader carried Deng's message back to Vietname and both sides decided that they would arrange the exchange of message from both leaderships. On Aug 16 1990, a Vietnamese official - son of a senior Vietname offical who defected to China, came to Chinese embassy with Nguy Van Linh's secret letter. Nguy told Chinese that he would communicate to China's leaders bypassing his foreign ministry - he had made up his mind.
Aug 19 1990 came the instruction from Chinese foreign minister, Chinese ambassador was asked to arrange a meeting with Vietname top leader, to see what they're really up to. Since he was not allowed to send a request through Vietname foreign ministry, Chinese ambassador decided that he would try Vietname defence minister. On Aug 21 he went to visit Vietnamese defence minister himself, and asked his help to arrange a meeting with top leader. The response came back quickly that Nguy would meet him on next day evening at Vietnamese defence ministry compound, without intepretor presence from both sides. The meeting led to a breakthrough. On Aug 28, Chinese issued an invation for both Vietnamese party and state leaders to pay a secret visit to China.
On Sep 3rd, three top Vietnamese leaders boarded an airplane to fly to Sichuan, China, to avoid Beijing to keep the meeting secret. There they met with Chinese president Jiang zemin, and premier Li peng. Both sides discussed the arrangement of Cambodia government after Vietname troop's withdraw: Sihamoni would be the chairman of the new government, and both government and resistance sides would contribute 6 key members. One vietname senior government advisor disputed that arrangement is unfair to Cambodia government side but at the end Vietnamese agreed to convince Cambodian officials to accept that. After the meeting, Chinese held a marvellous banquet for Vietnamese guests, Nguy Van Linh wrote a Chinese tradition poem during the dinner:
Brotherhood carries by generations
Hate and distrust gone like somke blown by wind
Smile on the face at this reunion
Wintess the goodwill of thousand of years
In 1991, Vietnamese top leaders paid an public official visit to Chian and both sides declared the normalization of Sino-Vietname relationship.
In October of 1989, Lao's leader came to visit China, he asked for an unarranged meeting with Deng during his stay. Deng agreed to give him a courtesy meeting but supposed 10 min talk turned into a 40 min one. Lao's leader relayed Vietnamese leader, Nguy Van Linh's message that Vietname set two things as the highest priority - withdraw from Cambodia and improve relationship with China, he asked Deng to issue an invitation to him to visit China. Deng didn't give the invitation but said he hope Sino-Vietname could resolve their problem before his total retirement, but Vietname must completely withdraw from Cambodia.Deng also expressed that he doesn't want to cope with Nguyen Co Thach - Vietname's then foreign minister, main pro-Soviet figure in Vietcon party.
Lao's leader carried Deng's message back to Vietname and both sides decided that they would arrange the exchange of message from both leaderships. On Aug 16 1990, a Vietnamese official - son of a senior Vietname offical who defected to China, came to Chinese embassy with Nguy Van Linh's secret letter. Nguy told Chinese that he would communicate to China's leaders bypassing his foreign ministry - he had made up his mind.
Aug 19 1990 came the instruction from Chinese foreign minister, Chinese ambassador was asked to arrange a meeting with Vietname top leader, to see what they're really up to. Since he was not allowed to send a request through Vietname foreign ministry, Chinese ambassador decided that he would try Vietname defence minister. On Aug 21 he went to visit Vietnamese defence minister himself, and asked his help to arrange a meeting with top leader. The response came back quickly that Nguy would meet him on next day evening at Vietnamese defence ministry compound, without intepretor presence from both sides. The meeting led to a breakthrough. On Aug 28, Chinese issued an invation for both Vietnamese party and state leaders to pay a secret visit to China.
On Sep 3rd, three top Vietnamese leaders boarded an airplane to fly to Sichuan, China, to avoid Beijing to keep the meeting secret. There they met with Chinese president Jiang zemin, and premier Li peng. Both sides discussed the arrangement of Cambodia government after Vietname troop's withdraw: Sihamoni would be the chairman of the new government, and both government and resistance sides would contribute 6 key members. One vietname senior government advisor disputed that arrangement is unfair to Cambodia government side but at the end Vietnamese agreed to convince Cambodian officials to accept that. After the meeting, Chinese held a marvellous banquet for Vietnamese guests, Nguy Van Linh wrote a Chinese tradition poem during the dinner:
Brotherhood carries by generations
Hate and distrust gone like somke blown by wind
Smile on the face at this reunion
Wintess the goodwill of thousand of years
In 1991, Vietnamese top leaders paid an public official visit to Chian and both sides declared the normalization of Sino-Vietname relationship.