By Yang Sheng and Zhang Hui
As China commemorated the 70th anniversary of the Chinese People’s Volunteers (CPV) army entering the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea (1950-1953), the DPRK, or North Korea, also held a solemn memorial event to express its gratitude and respect to China’s contribution in the 1950s to save the country from being destroyed by the US. Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend a meeting in Beijing Friday to commemorate the anniversary.
Xi will deliver an important speech at the meeting, which will be held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, the Xinhua News Agency reported. A day ahead of the grand solemn memorial meeting in Beijing, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Thursday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un paid tribute to martyrs of the Chinese People’s Volunteers (CPV) army in Hoechang county, and also paid tribute to Mao Anying, the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong’s eldest son, who died in the Korean War. Chinese analysts said this is a strong signal to the world that China-DPRK friendship and mutual trust remain close and solid despite external influence. The event highlights the anti-imperialism, anti-hegemony and self-defense nature of the war.
This is also a strong response to some voices from the US and South Korea accusing China’s military intervention that “it was an invasion of the Korean Peninsula,” said Chinese analysts, because it was the US who invaded the peninsula to intervene in the civil war, and ignored a series of warnings sent by China, and insisted on crossing the 38th parallel, and extend the war to China’s border. China’s intervention started in October 1950 to defend its homeland from further invasion by US-led “UN forces,” to save its ally the DPRK from being destroyed by US hegemony, and to safeguard regional peace and the security of Northeast Asia, they noted.
Saying that the entry of the CPV into the Korean front was a historic contribution to the great victory in the Fatherland Liberation War, Kim said that the great victory won by the armies and peoples of the DPRK and China while linking their destinies as one, and sharing weal and woe with each other is, indeed, of great significance no matter how much water may flow under the bridge, the KCNA reported.
“Every part of our country is closely associated with the blood of the service personnel of the CPV, who bravely fought in the sacred war against the imperialist aggressors, not being afraid of death, and dedicating their invaluable youth and lives to it,” Kim said, and he stressed that “our Party, government and people will never forget their noble souls and lofty spirit forever.”
Fought for justice
Kim’s remarks showed the consistency of the three generations of North Korean leaders toward China’s contribution to save their country in the 1950s. This kind of blood-cemented friendship will guide and expand the cooperation between the two countries, experts said. “From an international perspective, China fought a just war” to help another country to defend it from invasion, because the US was trying to completely wipe out the regime of the DPRK,” Yang Xiyu, a senior research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies in Beijing.
Zheng Jiyong, director of the Center for Korean Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, told the Global Times that “China has successfully saved the DPRK regime and pushed the US troops, who had an overwhelming advantage in weapons and resources, back to the south of the 38th parallel. This is why China has an irreplaceable role and unshakeable legitimacy to participate in the peninsula issue today.”
Lü Chao, a research fellow at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Thursday that the DPRK’s high profile commemoration on Wednesday is probably the greatest commemoration of the CPV army so far, which reflects the deep friendship between China and the DPRK during the war, and showed that the DPRK values its relations with China. More importantly, by fighting and winning the war against the most powerful country and the only nuclear-armed state at that time outside its own territory, China wiped out the century-long national humiliation since the Opium War during the late Qing Dynasty, Chinese experts said.
Closer ties
The war also brought at least 70 years of peace in the peninsula and the region. And because US hegemony still exists, China and North Korea still need to stand together and protect their countries, experts said. Lü said that the war has laid the foundation for peace and stability in Northeast Asia for more than half a century, and contributed to regional economic development.
This year, the commemoration was specific amid the dangerous stalemate between the DPRK and the US on denuclearization, and the rising hostility and strategic pressure from the US toward China, especially on the Taiwan question. “This makes 2020 and 1950 similar,” when the US sent its aircraft carrier fleets to the Taiwan Straits to intervene in China’s civil war, when it decided to get involved in the Korean civil war at the same time, Zheng said.
“China and the DPRK do have reasons to inherit their traditional friendship and expand cooperation to more fields, including economy, social governance, fighting the COVID-19, and national defense,” he said. Because Pyongyang-Washington talks face a deadlock, and it is unclear what will happen after the US election, the DPRK will stand closer with China to realize post-pandemic recovery despite efforts from the US to weaken China’s role in the peninsula issue, Chinese analysts said.
