gpit, could you please clarify this statement: "China appears even more important in peace-keeping SE Asia".
Thank you for your interesting questions!
Here is how:
In my earlier posts, I have suggest people study the concept and history of
Indochina federation, which is an important idea for modern Vietnam.
In recent couple of decades, it shows that Vietnam, being suppressed in history and modern times by many foreign powers, much like Korea, has a people of burning desire to conquer the world (
laughable? But it is true! ) constantly agitated by its irrational jingoism. Hundred times worse than India.
In contrast to India which has vast land and massive population, and therefore has certain legitimacy to claim or attempt to claim a next superpower, VN is a humanity sh!thole with disadvantageous geography and puny amount of population, added to its perpetual poverty, disastrous education system, and crippled and distorted history due to abolishment of Chinese language (that carries its history).
From this PDF forum alone, you can see so many history illiterate Vietnamese spewing out ridiculous evidence that SCS islands are all Viets. Those evidences were all written in Chinese and seldom those Viets actually know Chinese and therefore never understand what were on the evidence. LOL! In fact, those isolated maps or scrolls presented by PDF Viet illiterates may well be an indication that those islands were actually documented by ancient Chinese and indeed belong to China, even though tiny portion of the ancient Chinese became modern Vietnamese later.
Many Vietnamese know that shortcomings. Thus their first attempt is to revive so called Indochina federation by annexing its neighboring countries such as mild Cambodia and same mild but more backward Lao to gain land mass. Some Vietnamese want to also have a piece of Chinese land. Those crazy Viet in PDF and elsewhere claim that Chinese Guangxi autonomous region belongs to Vietnam!
I remember one stupid Viet went so far as to say Chinese land up to Yangtze River are all Vietnams.
Frankly, that Viet dunces brain must be squeezed by a gigantic donkeys @ss at least once, perhaps twice, otherwise it is hard to explain the severity of his mental condition.
Seriously, this is pretty dangerous, not only to the peace of ASAN, but also to the peace of the world in general.
Vietnams invasion of Cambodia was the first step toward Viets realization of Indochina federation under the pretext to overthrow Pol Pot. If you have studied Indochina modern history, documents show that Pol Pot and VietCom were initially in the same pants. Only when VeitCom suggested to Pol Pot Indochina federation concept, it caused extreme nationalistic Pol Pot to rebuke, ending up in a split of the two parties.
Chinese spanking of Vietnam in 1979 was exactly in such a background: China worried that if Vietnam indeed annexed Cambodia and Lao under Soviet evil support, the whole SE Asia would be in disaster, because Vietnam would not just stop there, it would further encroach/occupy Thailand (
Vietnamese border raids in Thailand - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia), threatening Malaysia and Singapore. Dont you see the pride some Viets in this forum show when they repeatedly present the picture presumably that Viet cannoned Thailands building? And so many Vietnamese here are blatantly raving about controlling Malacca Strait in this very PDF forum and many where else?
If Vietnam is allowed to follow its satanic ambition, it is well possible that it would invade Burma and threaten Bangladesh/India. Vietnams diabolical appetite would never be met. Just look at now: such a tiny country, stricken with poverty and inflation, yet filled with warmongers and criminals, claims a large part of China, both mainland and SCS islands.
Thus, facts show that a benevolent China effectively suppresses Vietnams fiendish ambition and keeps the peace of ASEAN, and the peace of Asia in general.