The PRC declared war on Vietnam in 1978, in support of Pol Pot's Democratic Kampuchea and the Khmer Rouge, who had, completely unprovoked, invaded Vietnam three times (the first literally the day after Saigon fell)and massacred thousands of Vietnamese civilians. Vietnam only declared war on Democratic Kampuchea in response to the third Kampuchean invasion (and subsequent massacres) in as many years.
The PRC didn't stop shelling Vietnam, and occupying Vietnamese land, until 1991, after the fall of the Soviet Union.
It seems disingenuous to phrase that as a punitive war when what the people of Vietnam were being "punished" was defending themselves from genocidal invaders and the "punishment" continued for 14 years, almost 5 times longer than the Socialist Republic of Vietnam had existed before the PRC declared war on them.
The PRC declared war on Vietnam in 1978, in support of Pol Pot's Democratic Kampuchea and the Khmer Rouge, who had, completely unprovoked, invaded Vietnam three times (the first literally the day after Saigon fell)and massacred thousands of Vietnamese civilians. Vietnam only declared war on Democratic Kampuchea in response to the third Kampuchean invasion (and subsequent massacres) in as many years.
The PRC didn't stop shelling Vietnam, and occupying Vietnamese land, until 1991, after the fall of the Soviet Union.
It seems disingenuous to phrase that as a punitive war when what the people of Vietnam were being "punished" was defending themselves from genocidal invaders and the "punishment" continued for 14 years, almost 5 times longer than the Socialist Republic of Vietnam had existed before the PRC declared war on them.