When the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) withdrew from Vietnam in March 1979 after the war, China announced that they were not ambitious for "any square inch of the territory of Vietnam". However, Chinese troops occupied an area of 60 square kilometres (23 sq mi), which was disputed land controlled by Vietnam before hostilities broke out. In some places such as the area around Friendship Gate near the city of Lång So'n, Chinese troops occupied territories which had little military value but important symbolic value. Elsewhere, Chinese troops occupied the strategic positions of military importance as springboards to attack Vietnam.

The Chinese occupation of border territory angered Vietnam, and this ushered in a series of Sino-Vietnamese Battles on the border between Vietnam and China to gain control of the area. These conflicts continued until 1988, peaking in the years 1984-1985. By the early 1990s, along with the withdrawal of Vietnam from Cambodia and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the relationship between the two countries gradually returned to normality. By 1991, the two countries officially proclaimed the normalization of their diplomatic relations, thereby ending the border conflicts.