Anti-Chinese protesters in Vietnam have marked the 35th anniversary of a bloody border war with China, laying flowers at a temple in central Hanoi.
The protesters had wanted Sunday to lay wreaths at a famous statue in the capital, but were blocked by an aerobics class and several dancers playing loud music. The demonstrators suspect the government hired the dancers to block access to the statue. So, they marched to a popular tourist attraction, the Ngoc Son Temple, and laid their flowers.
China invaded Vietnam's northern provinces in February of 1979 after Vietnamese troops ousted the Beijing-backed Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia.
The short but bloody conflict claimed tens of thousands of lives on both sides and ended with Chinese forces withdrawing.
The two countries are locked in long-standing territorial disputes in the Paracel and Spratly islands, although China is one of Vietnam's largest trading partners.
The protesters had wanted Sunday to lay wreaths at a famous statue in the capital, but were blocked by an aerobics class and several dancers playing loud music. The demonstrators suspect the government hired the dancers to block access to the statue. So, they marched to a popular tourist attraction, the Ngoc Son Temple, and laid their flowers.
China invaded Vietnam's northern provinces in February of 1979 after Vietnamese troops ousted the Beijing-backed Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia.
The short but bloody conflict claimed tens of thousands of lives on both sides and ended with Chinese forces withdrawing.
The two countries are locked in long-standing territorial disputes in the Paracel and Spratly islands, although China is one of Vietnam's largest trading partners.