# China rewrites history of Korean War



## Colin1 (Jun 26, 2010)

_The Daily Telegraph_ Saturday 26 June 2010

Beijing marks 60th anniversary of conflict by pointing the finger at its Communist ally

*By Malcolm Moore
in Shanghai*

China has used the 60th anniversary of the Korean War to finally admit the conflict was started by North Korea. Until now, Beijing has staunchly supported the version of events put forward by its ally, alongside which China fought.

It previously insisted that the war was waged to fight off American aggression. The official title of the conflict has been 'The War to Resist America and Aid Korea'. Mao Tse Tung, the former Communist leader, once stated that China and North Korea were "as close as lips and teeth".

Chinese history text books state that the Korean War began when "the United States assembled a United Nations army of 15 countries and defiantly marched across the border and invaded North Korea, spreading the flames of war to our Yalu river".

But yesterday, the official Chinese media stated for the first time that it was North Korea that dealt the first blow.

A special report by Xinhua, the Chinese government's official news agency, in the International Affairs journal, said, "On June 25th 1950, the North Korean army marched over the 38th Parallel and started the attack. Three days later, Seoul fell".

In Asia, however, the memory of the war is still felt strongly and has sustained a continuing alliance between Beijing and Pyongyang. While many Chinese historians privately accept the view that North Korea was the aggressor in the war, driven by Kim Il Sung's desire to unite the Korean peninsula under a Communist banner, the matter remains highly sensitive.

Zhang Liangui, a leading professor of Korean Studies at the Communist Central Party School in Beijing, refused to comment. "It is not convenient for me to comment on this matter" he said "I was not aware of this timeline [in the Xinhua article]. As far as I am aware there has been no change to the official view on the war".

Meanwhile, the Global Times, a government-run newspaper, said it was "high time to renew and strengthen efforts by Chinese scholars to discover the truth about the Korean War".

In Seoul, South Korea held an official ceremony to remember the war and Lee Myung-bak, the president, paid tribute to the dead. "Sixty years ago, North Korea's communists opened fire on a weekend's dawn when all people were sleeping peacefully" he said.

Across the border, North Korea put across its own view of the conflict. Under the headline "US, Provoker of Korean War" the country's state news agency accused Washington of starting the war with a surprise attack. "All the historical facts show that it is the US imperialists who unleashed the war in Korea and that the United States can never escape from the responsibility" the Korean Central News Agency said.

*Below:* Americans are held by Chinese Communists. The conflict was called 'The War to Resist America and Aid Korea'


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## evangilder (Jun 26, 2010)

Interesting change on the stance by China. The timing of this is equally interesting. Could Beijing be preparing to distance itself from Pyonyang?


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## BombTaxi (Jun 26, 2010)

I think Beijing may be starting to see good relations with the West as being more important than good relations with NK...


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## ppopsie (Jun 26, 2010)

Recommended reading; Red Wings over the Yalu: China, the Soviet Union, and the Air War in Korea
Amazon.com: Red Wings over the Yalu: China, the Soviet Union, and the Air War in


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## Ferdinand Foch (Jun 26, 2010)

Well, that would be nice if China distanced itself from North Korea. That Kim Jong Il fellow's a bloody whackjob. Him and all of his little cronies.


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## vikingBerserker (Jun 26, 2010)

I did not see this one coming, but it's a welcomed change.


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## ppopsie (Jun 27, 2010)

I love the Mig-15bis flown by flight leader Wan Hai PLAAF #2249 and Soviet's #15325 BBC "Airplane Soldier." 
But I love the F-86 Sabres too (that is, I love the either jet fighter).
Recommended reading; Sabre Jets over Korea by D.K. Evans http://www.librarything.com/work/9337232
This book was so exciting that I nearly collided with another car while I was driving my Subaru at the same time was daydreaming over the book about a scene of the sky full of Sabres and Migs dogfighting.


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## Colin1 (Jun 27, 2010)

ppopsie said:


> I love the Mig-15bis flown by fligh leader Wan Hai PLAAF #2249.
> But I love the F-86 Sabres too (that is I love either jet fighter).


a bit random...


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## ppopsie (Jun 27, 2010)

One thing I learned from "Red Wings over the Yalu" is that communist China lost opportunities to liberate Taiwan in early 50's.


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## Gnomey (Jun 27, 2010)

vikingBerserker said:


> I did not see this one coming, but it's a welcomed change.



Yep.


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## syscom3 (Jun 27, 2010)

Interesting.

I agree that the PRC is seeing that good relations with the west (and its economic dependence on them) is far more profitable than having an out of control NK making troubles in the region.


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## BombTaxi (Jun 27, 2010)

NK is never going to but vast quantities of consumer goods from the PRC, after all. The Chinese have no choice to distance themselves if they want more contracts from big American companies like Apple etc.


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## tango35 (Jul 4, 2010)

The Chinese are like the Russians, coldheart commies in sheep clothings and so i trust them as far as i can throw a stone - and i can´t throw far away; i would see a change in chinese politics when they rereat from Tibet and a change in their " relationship" to Taiwan


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## renrich (Jul 6, 2010)

China and the West, particularely the US have a symbiotic relationship. China needs the US markets and the US needs Chinese financing. The US is transforming itself into more of a socialist country, like China and China is becoming more of a capitalist country. If it were my choice, I would trust China much more than Russia.


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## Thorlifter (Jul 6, 2010)

As far as China is concerned, who would you prefer to have friendly relations with? The U.S. or NK? NK really doesn't have much to offer.

@Renrich: I agree the U.S. is becoming more socialist, especially with that (self censored) president we have. Maybe that will change in a couple years.


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## renrich (Jul 6, 2010)

Absolutely agree, Thorlifter, with both your statements. I don't believe the rulers of China today are nearly the idealogues that once ran things there.


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## Zniperguy114 (Jul 6, 2010)

Sure, you can call China Communist still, but not really be correct in saying that. China doesn't really have a dictator, but more or less a monarchy in its own sense. It is not the Iron Fisted Rule it was. If China was truly Communist, would they really have open relations with us?Because they realized along with us that only death and destruction can come from standing up against one another. A prime example of that is the "what if" The Cuban Missile Crisis lead to WWIII. I'm glad to welcome Change in China's early feelings on us. We depend on each other.


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## Colin1 (Jul 6, 2010)

Zniperguy114 said:


> Sure, you can call China Communist still, but not really be correct in saying that. China doesn't really have a dictator, but more or less a monarchy in its own sense. It is not the Iron Fisted Rule it was. If China was truly Communist, would they really have open relations with us?Because they realized along with us that only death and destruction can come from standing up against one another. A prime example of that is the "what if" The Cuban Missile Crisis lead to WWIII. I'm glad to welcome Change in China's early feelings on us. We depend on each other.


Well
we'll see; personally, I think China learned alot of lessons on how not to do Communism from it's next-door neighbour - isolationism badly damaged USSR agriculture, it was interesting to note in Gorbachev's autobiography that, on a visit to the USA and Canada, the Soviet farm collectives were suffering near-identical problems to their North American counterparts.

Couple of your points I don't understand; you don't need a figure-head (dictator) to be a dictatorship and what's your analogy with a monarchy?

As for iron-fisted rule, you'd need a short memory to rule Tiananmen Square out of any argument on that score. More recently, why can't the Chinese just google anything they want?

The points of Tibet and Taiwan have already been made.

My own personal feelings are that China is truly Communist but engaging the outside world in free trade; Capitalism on their terms. I don't think China has feelings for the West one way or the other, they just realise that their fate is inextricably linked with us commercially, with Chinese goods/commodities/hardware/enterprises competing with ours (more cheaply) they'll avoid what the USSR failed to see coming - stagnation driving public indifference to their political system.

A well-fed, well-heeled population with lots of lifestyle toys that is plugged in to the outside world (to the approved extent) is far less likely to start a revolution.


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## Matt308 (Jul 7, 2010)

Zniperguy114 said:


> Sure, you can call China Communist still, but not really be correct in saying that. China doesn't really have a dictator, but more or less a monarchy in its own sense. It is not the Iron Fisted Rule it was. If China was truly Communist, would they really have open relations with us?.



Wow. I can't believe I just read that.


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## BombTaxi (Jul 8, 2010)

Without getting too political, China is certainly not a truly communist country, as it permits a significant level of free enterprise - as we have been discussing, this is necessary for the country's future prosperity, and the Party knows that only too well. It certainly isn't a monarchy, but I would peg it as an increasingly oligarchic autocratic state. In fact, in some respects it begins to resemble the West as it moved into the early stages of unrestricted capitalism.

By the way, the idea that communist and capitalist countries cannot maintain relations is little more than a propagandist myth perpetrated by both sides during the Cold War. The USSR maintained diplomatic relations with capitalist nations before the Civil War was even over, and if you think about Leninist (and especially Trotskyite) dogma, this makes perfect sense. Communism (in the strictly dogmatic sense) arises from the dissatisfaction of workers in capitalist nations with unrestricted free markets, so it makes sense to maintain ties with those countries as a means of inserting or cultivating subversive elements to further the spread of the revolution, which was an end in itself in Trotsky's thinking.


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## Zniperguy114 (Jul 8, 2010)

I agree with Bomb Taxi.


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## skeeter (Aug 7, 2010)

I read an account of an F-86 Sabre pilot shooting down a Mig-15. The Mig pilot punched out and just for a fleeting moment the Sabre pilot saw a grimacing white face with a full head of reddish hair as the ejection seat, complete with pilot, flashed past his canopy upside down prior to the chute deploying. Well, well, well. A Russian. LOL. Now why did I write that here. Well, we're talking about how China has finally come clean about North Korea. I wonder. Have the Russians?


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Aug 7, 2010)

It is no secret about the Russians. There are plenty of documentaries with interviews with Russian pilots.


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## Colin1 (Aug 7, 2010)

skeeter said:


> I read an account of an F-86 Sabre pilot shooting down a Mig-15. The Mig pilot punched out and just for a fleeting moment the Sabre pilot saw a grimacing white face with a full head of reddish hair as the ejection seat, complete with pilot, flashed past his canopy upside down prior to the chute deploying. Well, well, well. A Russian. LOL. Now why did I write that here. Well, we're talking about how China has finally come clean about North Korea. I wonder. Have the Russians?


I'm only surprised that the pilot had the presence of mind to remove his dome in the fleeting seconds that he had left


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## tyrodtom (Sep 8, 2010)

I think Mig pilots were still wearing soft leather helmets during the Korean war. If the chin strap wasn't tight who knows what a 500-600 mph wind would do.


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