World IN BRIEF : VIETNAM : Hanoi, Beijing Reopening Rail Links
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China and Vietnam will reopen rail links today, ending years of cross-border political differences. The move comes almost 17 years to the day after Chinese troops crossed Vietnam’s northern border at the start of a brief but bloody war to punish Hanoi for its December 1978 invasion of Cambodia. Beijing’s forces were quickly repulsed in what was seen as a humiliation, but only after about 20,000 people had been killed and entire towns leveled. Hanoi has hailed the rail links as a landmark in relations, coming more than three years after the border road was reopened. The opening of the road sparked a trade boom that in 1995 grew to an estimated $900 million.
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