BUSINESS IN CYBERSPACE: Chinese President Hu Jintao, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nong Duc Manh (right) and Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet (left) jointly launch a website for China-Vietnam economic and trade cooperation on November 16, 2006 (XINHUA)

This month commemorates the 60th anniversary of the establishment of Sino-Vietnamese relations, coming at the outset of 2010—the official China-Viet Nam Friendship Year. Given the complex nature of China's relationship with nations of Southeast Asia, there can be no denying the bumps on the road. Nonetheless, friendship and cooperation have since taken center stage in full force: Indeed, it is a partnership only expected to flourish more with time.

A long-standing friendship

Linked by mountains and rivers, ties between the two nations have, of course, endured for centuries. Since the mid-19th century, China and Viet Nam have shared similar fates. Very notably, both suffered dearly by invasions and oppression at the hands of imperialist powers. Both resisted arduously for national independence and liberation, and chose the same social system.

In many respects, China has served as the cradle of the Vietnamese revolution. Not only was Viet Nam's founding President Ho Chi Minh considered a close friend of the Chinese people, he also first attended revolutionary activities in the city of Guangzhou. At the time, he served as the French interpreter and secretary for Michael Borodin, an adviser to China's democratic revolution pioneer Dr. Sun Yat-sen in the 1920s.

In 1925, he founded the Vietnamese Revolutionary Youth Association, the predecessor of the Communist Party of Viet Nam, in Guangzhou. Five years on, Ho Chi Minh formally established the Communist Party of Viet Nam in Hong Kong. Many of its leaders had previously participated in revolutionary activism in several provinces in southern China, including Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan.

China's role in supporting Viet Nam's socialist governance extended through September 2, 1945, the date on which the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam was founded.

However, the fledgling nation was threatened from the outset by a French Government seeking a heavy colonial footprint in Southeast Asia. But in the end a harrowing, decisive 57-day battle between French military forces and Vietnamese resistance in 1954 culminated in independence.

Meanwhile to the north, the Chinese people enjoyed Vietnamese support in their own War of Liberation against the reactionary regime of Chiang Kai-shek in the middle to late 1940s. That is, party cadres and military forces on each side of the border often took supportive actions for one another in spite of their own struggles.

'Comrades like brothers'

From 1950 when the two countries first established diplomatic relations until 1975, China and Viet Nam enjoyed a particularly strong relationship. President Ho Chi Minh asserted that both countries were "comrades like brothers."

China became the first country to establish full diplomatic relations with Viet Nam on January 18, 1950. With the help of China, the Soviet Union, North Korea and other countries came to the table over the following 10 days.

Not surprisingly, this flurry of neighborly diplomacy provided fundamental changes in Viet Nam's place among the family of nations.

But China went several steps further. In addition to deploying military advisors, China also provided weapons, supplies and other aid with which to help Viet Nam's fighting forces. China also sent governmental advisory groups for land, finance and party organization to help the Vietnamese carry out land reform, train party and government officials and improve economic order.

Indeed, even the Geneva Agreement which restored peace in Indochina following the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu would likely not have been possible were it not for Chinese assistance.

Soon after, on June 23, 1955, Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh paid his first state visit to China. The occasion marked the beginning of modern relations between the two countries. Four years later at the outset of the Viet Nam War until America's withdrawal in 1975, China further increased assistance to its southern neighbor.

Altogether, it is believed China provided more than $20 billion in assistance, in addition to dispatching more than 20,000 experts and advisors. Thousands of Chinese soldiers perished on the battlefields of Viet Nam.

But Viet Nam has a long history of supporting Chinese interests, too. For one thing, it supported the one-China policy, asserting Taiwan and the Penghu Archipelago are—and have been—Chinese territory since ancient times.

In addition, it roundly condemned a UN resolution on the Tibet issue passed by the 14th Session of the UN General Assembly in 1959, by stating emphatically that Tibet is a very fundamental part of the Chinese territory.

Vietnamese delegates added that the proposal was a violation of the UN Charter, and a blatant interference in China's internal affairs. Viet Nam then strongly advocated the full restoration of China's legitimate rights in the UN.

Restoration of relations

Unfortunately, complications flared between the two powers at the conclusion of the Viet Nam War. These differences endured throughout the 1970s and lasted into the 1980s.

But following the end of the Cold War and the resolution of the Cambodian issue—including the withdrawal of the Vietnamese forces—China and Viet Nam seized the chance to normalize relations once again.

Thus a new era between the two nations began. It was initiated in September 1990, when leaders of both nations met secretly in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. During the negotiations, both sides reached a concensus on normalizing bilateral relations.

Then, in November of the following year, Do Muoi, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Viet Nam and Vo Van Kiet, Chairman of Viet Nam's Council of Ministers made a state visit to Beijing. Their trip marked the official beginning of full normalizations.

Soon after, friendly exchanges increased exponentially, with leaders of both sides holding five major summits over three years.

Then Chinese President Jiang Zemin went to Viet Nam in November 1994, marking the first visit of a Chinese president to Viet Nam. Those summits, proved pivotal in exchanging experience in reform and opening up while resolving challenges in bilateral relations—accordingly, enhancing the Sino-Vietnamese relations.

Both countries went on to sign dozens of cooperative agreements—ranging from areas like trade, economy and aviation to shipping, among other things. China has also since provided comprehensive economic aid to Viet Nam. In addition, cultural cooperative agreements have also taken place, in part, strengthening cooperation on the media—including publishing, radio, television—and sports.