Outline of Vietnam
Vietnam was under Chinese control for a thousand years before becoming a nation-state in the 10th century. Successive dynasties flourished along with geographic and political expansion deeper into Southeast Asia, until it was colonized by the French in the mid-19th century. Efforts to resist the French eventually led to their expulsion from the country in the mid-20th century, leaving a nation divided politically into two countries. Bitter fighting between the two sides continued during the Vietnam War, ending with a communist victory in 1975.
Immigration to Vietnam
During the French rule of Vietnam between 1925 and 1933, nearly 600,000 Chinese emigrated to North Vietnam, and in the Second Sino-Japanese war that took place from 1937-1941, many Chinese left for South Vietnam. Tensions between newly reunified Vietnam and China led to a mass exodus in 1978, when 150,000 ethnic Chinese fled Northern Vietnam for China due to fears of imminent war and Vietnamese persecution. In the aftermath of the subsequent 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War, the Vietnamese government made considerable efforts to drive out remaining ethnic Chinese residents, but many remained in the country; resulting in large Chinese communities in Vietnam that persists today.