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Mao Zedong who was passive in the Korean War

  Did China try to spread the communist revolution to the Korean Peninsula through the Korean War? Looking at the results, this can be judged in that way, because Mao Zedong agreed to Kim Il-sung’s plan to invade the South, and the dispatch of Chinese troops led to a direct armed conflict with the United States, but in fact, the Chinese Communist Party leadership, including Mao Zedong, took a passive stance on the outbreak of the Korean War, after establishing the so-called ‘New China’ in October 1949. The main reason is that the nature and objective of the Chinese Communist Party have been changed. With the success of the Chinese Revolution, the Chinese Communist Party transformed itself from a ‘revolutionary party’ to a ‘ruling party’. The immediate tasks of the Chinese Communist government at the time were to quickly restore the domestic economy devastated by the anti-Japanese war and Chinese civil war, solidify the foundation of the regime, and focus on building a socialist system. In particular, a stable international environment was absolutely necessary for successful economic development, and therefore the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party did not want to have war on the Korean Peninsula.

  In a telegram sent to Stalin on October 21, 1949, Mao Zedong said, “North Korea should not attack South Korea at present,” and in a meeting with Stalin on December 16, 1949, he also emphasized that “At present, the most important issue [to China] is to guarantee peace. China needs a period of peace of 3 to 5 years to restore the economy to pre-war levels and stabilize the domestic situation.” Additionally, at the end of March 1950, just before the outbreak of the Korean War, the Chinese Communist leadership mentioned that “if (North Korea) has a specific plan for the unification of North Korea, the meeting must be held privately. Conversely, if there is no specific plan for the unification of Kora, a meeting with Kim Il-sung can be formally conducted. China hopes to formally hold talks with Kim Il-sung.” Considering the fact that China “wanted to formally hold talks with Kim Il-sung”, it can be judged that China had a passive stance toward North Korea’s use of force. Even on September 23, 1956, after the Korean War ceased, Mao Zedong mentioned the following when he met Mikoyan, a Politburo member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Before the war broke out, Kim Il-sung and Park Heon-young came to Beijing together and said that Stalin had agreed. I reminded them that even when Lee Sang-jo came and spoke to me several times, all of them said no. They said again that Stalin had agreed, that China only had to agree and that no help from China was needed, so we had no choice but to agree.(中聯部編, 「毛澤東第二次接見蘇共中央代 表團談話記錄(1956年9月23日)」, 『毛澤東接見外賓談話記錄匯編』 第一册, 中共中央聯絡部, 出版年度未詳(Peking University Korean Peninsula Research Center internal data)

  In the end, the Korean War broke out on June 25, 1950, due to North Korea’s sudden attack on South Korea, and with the tide of the war turning against North Korea after the UN’s successful Incheon landing operation on September 15, China decided to enter the war. The Chinese army crossed the Yalu River on October 19, 1950, under the name of the ‘Chinese People’s Volunteer Army’, and the first battle took place on October 25. With China’s participation in the Koran War, the so-called ‘Anti-US and Pro-Joseon War’ began.

Description of the Korean War in Chinese history textbooks

  Even though China was passive about the outbreak of the Korean War and hesitated to repeatedly decide whether to ‘send troops’ or ‘not send troops’ regarding the participation of the Chinese army from the beginner, today’s Chinese history textbooks do not describe such facts. Rather, Chinese history textbooks overemphasize that “the Korean War was a war between China and the United States,” and show several characteristic narratives as follows.

  First, in the description of the outbreak of the Korean War, they do not specifically state that “the war began when North Korea attacked South Korea.” Although the war clearly began with North Korea’s invasion of the South, this fact is not described accurately. This is because China basically defines the nature of the Korean War as a civil war. In that context, while emphasizing that there was tension and military conflict between North and South Korea before the outbreak of the war, they do not recognize the matter of which side provoked the North or South first as important. China also knows that the war broke out due to North Korea’s preemptive attack but considering realistic political and diplomatic relations with North Korea, history textbooks do not specifically mention this.

  Second, it emphasizes that China’s national security was seriously threatened by criticizing the US ’armed intervention’ on the Korean Peninsula and the US ‘armed invasion’ of Taiwan immediately after the outbreak of the Korean War. Chinese history textbooks describe America’s participation in the Korean War in the context of both interference in the ‘civil war on the Korean Peninsula’ and a challenge to Chinese sovereignty. China’s participation in the war is defined as self-defense and defensive in nature, and the narrative about the legitimacy of the Chinese military’s participation in the war is emphasized.

  Third, they emphasize that the Chinese military’s participation in the war was an inevitable choice to counter the invasion of the United States and winning the decisive battle against the world’s most powerful country, the United States, not only saved North Korea from the risk of defeat and secured China’s national security, but also enhanced the status of ‘New China’ and national pride. In particular, they emphasize that China achieved a ‘great victory’ in the ‘Anti-US and Pro-Joseon War.’

Summoning memories of the US-China hegemony competition and ‘Anti-US and Pro-Joseon War’

  In analyzing China’s history textbooks on the Korean War, it is very clear that China’s perception and description of the ‘Anti-US and Pro-Joseon War’ are produced within the structure of the US-China hegemony competition, and its intention and target are clearly directed at the US. In that respect, it can be said that Chinese history textbooks’ descriptions of the Korean War biasedly utilize and interpret historical events to achieve non-academic purposes.

  China uses its experience and memories of the ‘Anti-US and Pro-Joseon War’ as a tool for real politics. President Xi Jinping, who attended the 70th Anniversary of the Korean War held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on October 23, 2020, the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War, defined the Korean War as “a great victory that defended New China against American aggression.” At the same time, he strongly criticized the United States’ unilateral behavior and added a warning that “we will not stand by and see China’s sovereignty and national interests being undermined.” In particular, in his speech at the ‘70th Anniversary Commemoration of the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army Operation of Anti-US and Pro-Joseon’, Xi Jinping said, “The great war of Anti-US and Pro-Joseon war prevented the expansion of imperialist aggression and safeguarded the security of New China,” and emphasized that “through difficult battles, we broke the myth of the invincibility of the U.S. military.” In this way, the Chinese authorities are strengthening Chinese nationalism by recalling the experience and memories of the ‘Anti-US and Pro-Joseon War’ and using them in the hegemony competition between the US and China.

  The Chinese government’s propaganda and education through history textbooks are also influencing the Chinese public’s perception of the Korean War. On October 7, 2020, the world-famous K-group BTS won the ‘Van Fleet Award’ given by the Korea Society, an American non-profit organization. The ‘Van Fleet Award’, named after General James Van Fleet(1892-1992), who participated in the Korean War as commander of the US 2nd Corps in August 1950 and served as a commander of the US 8th Army from 1951 to 1953, is an award that was established in 1992 by ‘Korea Society’, a Korean American friendship association. At the award ceremony, a member of BTS expressed his thoughts on receiving the award, saying, “This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Korean War, and we must forever remember the history of hardships that Korea and the United States experienced together and the sacrifices of many men and women.”

However, an unexpected situation occurred in which BTS’s acceptance speech provoked a backlash from some of the Chinese public and media. What they took issue with was the part in BTS’s acceptance speech about ‘the history of hardships both countries have experienced.’ According to their argument, this statement was a reference to ignoring the noble sacrifices made by the Chinese military during the Korean War. This shows the bitter side of the biased perception of some people who only remember the Korean War as the ‘Anti-US and Pro-Joseon War.’

Is the Korean War a war between the US and China?

  China calls the Korean War the ‘Anti-US and Pro-Joseon War’ in the sense that it was a “war that aided North Korea against the United States.” This naming by China is fundamentally based on the perception that “the Korean War was a war between the United States and China.” However, China does not define the entire Korean War, that is, the entire period from the start of the war until the armistice, as the ‘Anti-US and Pro-Joseon War.’ China recognizes the Korean War as divided into two stages: the “Joseon War’ and the ‘Anti-US and Pro-Joseon War.’ According to the perspective of Chinese historiography, the Korean War is divided into the ‘Joseon War’, which was a civil war between North and South Korea, and the ‘Anti-US and Pro-Joseon War’, which was a conflict between the US and China. In other words, China perceives that the war started as a civil war and expanded into a war between China and the United States with the participation of the Chinese military.

  The slogan put forward by China during the Korean War was ‘Anti-US and Pro-Joseon, Protect Family and Country(抗美援朝, 保家衛國).’ In other words, it means “We support North Korea against the United States, protect our families and our country.” Even through these slogans, we can find that China recognized the United States as a threat to China’s security and it remembers the Korean War as a war against the United States. This historical awareness is clearly reflected in Chinese history textbooks.

  So, was the Korean War really a war between the US and China? It is true that China played a part in the Korean War as a ‘party involved’, but the ‘parties’ in the Korean War were South Korea and North Korea. This war was a terrible disaster that occurred between South and North Korea on the Korean Peninsula, as expressed as a ‘tragedy of fratricide.’ Although the sacrifices of the U.S. and Chinese troops were great in the war, the countries that suffered the most were the South and North of the Korean Peninsula. If China emphasizes the ‘Anti-US and Pro-Joseon War’ for purposes other than academic purposes and utilizes historical facts of the Korean War with bias, this is not the correct attitude toward history. The ‘Anti-US and Pro-Joseon War’ may be said to be ‘part’ of the Korean War, but it is not ‘all’ of the Korean War.