Hanoi Had 500 Casualties on Border, China Says

China denied Saturday that Vietnam had scored a major victory against Chinese troops and said Vietnam suffered 500 casualties in last week’s border battles.

The Foreign Ministry, in a statement, also said fighting along the rugged border had tapered off since Thursday, although Vietnam continued to shell the Chinese side.

“On Jan. 5 and 7, the Vietnamese troops carried out repeated provocations in our border area of Yunnan province and met with forceful counterattack from the Chinese frontier guards,” the Foreign Ministry said.

“Since Jan. 8, apart from sporadic shelling against our side from Vietnamese troops, it is generally quiet along the Sino-Vietnamese border,” the Foreign Ministry statement said.

The statement did not mention Chinese casualties in the fighting.

Asserting that the Vietnamese troops suffered at least 500 casualties, the statement added, “With regard to the battle achievements claimed by Vietnam, . . . it is sheer boasting and its purpose is to deceive the Vietnamese people and international public opinion.”

1,500 Casualties Claimed

Hanoi said Thursday that 1,500 Chinese had been killed, wounded or captured in one of the worst outbreaks of fighting since China briefly invaded Vietnam in 1979 to “punish” Hanoi for its invasion of Cambodia.

Vietnam said Chinese gunners fired more than 60,000 artillery and mortar rounds to support the ground assault by an infantry division on Vietnamese positions about 170 miles north of Hanoi.

Both sides continue to charge provocations, shellings and territorial incursions by the other. Western journalists are rarely allowed near the border and independent confirmation of the claims is very difficult.

China was a staunch supporter of Vietnam during the Vietnamese wars against France and the U.S.-backed South Vietnamese government, but relations soured badly when Vietnam invaded Cambodia to drive the Peking-backed Khmer Rouge from power.