Hi everyone, this is Klaus.
Things between China and the US are getting increasingly tense lately.
When it comes to propaganda and commemoration of the Korean War, China hasn't been subtle.
The CCP held two Politburo meetings in one week.
As per communist propaganda, the Korean War is the war to "Resist the US and Aid Korea",
a great war against US imperialism,
a war in which the US "Paper Tiger" was defeated.
In today's video, we won’t read from your typical history book.
We will directly call out China on its five biggest lies about the Korean War in chronological order,
and tell you the whole story.
I hope you enjoy this video.
Lie NO. 1: The Korean War was launched by the US, and China was merely defending itself.
After World War II,
as per the Allied Agreement, the Korean Peninsula was divided into the US and Soviet occupation zones by the 38th parallel.
The US accepted the surrender of the Japanese army south of the 38th parallel, while the Soviet Union to its north.
By 1948, the south and the north had established regimes and troops respectively.
The north became the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea with Kim Il as supreme leader,
armed with the Korean People's Army.
The south became the Republic of Korea with Rhee Seung as president, armed with the National Army of the Republic of Korea.
After South Korea and North Korea became independent, the US and the Soviet Union withdrew their armies.
Due to historical reasons, both sides had the will to unify the Korean Peninsula.
So, from time to time, the two had small-scale political and military conflicts.
The US hoped that the South Korean army could withstand North Korea's attack,
but at the same time, the US didn’t want South Korea to provoke a war, so they restricted South Korea's military strength.
But North Korea was fully supported by the Soviet Union, and Mao Zedong agreed
to let 50,000 Korean soldiers serving in the People's Liberation Army join the Korean People's Army.
Besides, when the Korean Peninsula was under Japanese rule,
industrial areas were concentrated in the north, while the south was agricultural.
Before the war broke out, there had already been a huge difference in military strength between South Korea and North Korea:
soldiers 2:1, artilleries 2:1, machine guns 7:1,
semi-automatic rifles 13:1, tanks 6.5:1, aircraft 6:1.
The Korean People’s Army had an absolute advantage.
In 1949, Kim Il Sung travelled between Moscow and Beijing,
calling for a joint war to "liberate South Korea".
According to Soviet declassified files,
the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s four-field troops led by Lin Biao handed over two divisions' forces and weapons to North Korea.
Taking into account the Korean soldiers mentioned before,
the CCP provided North Korea with 46% of the Korean People’s Army.
With the secret support of the Soviet Union and China,
under Kim Il Sung's command, on June 25, 1950,
North Korea's army crossed the 38th parallel, starting a war to unify the Korean Peninsula.
It was a surprise attack.
Half of South Korea's troops were not ready for combat.
Within four hours, the line of defense was breached,
and Seoul, the capital of South Korea, was captured within three days.
But Kim Il tried to hide the fact that North Korea started the war,
claiming that South Korea had drawn first blood,
and that the Korean People’s Army was countering the provocation of "Traitor Lee Seungman".
Lie NO. 2: The Korean War was a war between China and the United States.
After the Korean War broke out, Resolution 82 by the UN Security Council passed with 9 supports, no opposition, and 1 absention,
demanding that North Korea immediately end its invasion of South Korea,
in order to avoid a full-scale war.
But North Korea didn't comply with Resolution 82 nor Resolution 83.
On July 7, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 84
and 16 member states of the UN joined forces
alongside a medical team from five countries to intervene in the Korean War,
providing "military and medical assistance" to South Korea.
Since China calls the Korean War the "War to Resist US and Aid Korea",
a war against US imperialism,
so many Chinese people don’t know that
China was actually resisting the United Nations aiding South Korea.
Indeed, China was aiding North Korea. But it was fighting against over 20 countries.
Lie NO. 3: The Chinese army was the People’s Volunteer Army consisting of volunteering Chinese soldiers.
When the United Nations formed an army to assist South Korea,
Zhou Enlai, Premier of the State Council, issued a statement, publicly condemning the UN.
In July, the United Nations passed a resolution to join the war, and the CCP promised Stalin,
"If the Korean People’s Army was defeated, China would quickly send troops into North Korea."
The situation on the Korean Peninsula changed after the United Nations army arrived.
Then, the CCP began to plan to enter North Korea.
On October 19, 1950,
the Chinese People's Volunteer Army led by Peng Dehuai crossed the Yalu River.
The People's Volunteer Army consisted of troops of the Chinese People's Liberation Army who were ordered to fight in the war.
Nobody, not even Peng Dehuai, was willing to fight.
The CCP used the label, "Volunteer Army", to hide from the rest of the world the fact that China was officially participating in the war.
21,000 of the "volunteers" were captured in the Korean War.
After the war, two-thirds of them refused to return to mainland China,
and chose to go to Taiwan instead, most of them eventually joining Taiwan's national army
and blending into Taiwanese society.
The 6,064 soldiers who chose to return to mainland China underwent strict political screening.
Many people were accused of treason and were treated as traitors,
who, after the Cultural Revolution broke out, were severely persecuted.
Many were tortured and committed suicide.
Lie NO. 4: China won the Korean War and defeated US imperialism.
In a war, victory is based on the surrender of the losing side.
In the middle of 1951, North Korea and South Korea are locked in stalemate near the 38th parallel.
Both sides slowly grew willing to broker a truce.
On July 27, 1953, the two sides finally signed the Korean Armistice Agreement in Panmunjom.
The Korean War came to an end, and the territories of both sides remained roughly separated by the 38th parallel.
North Korea had a net loss of 3,900 square kilometers of land.
The armistice agreement is not a surrender agreement, so China did not win.
The armistice agreement is not a peace agreement either,
meaning that theoretically the two sides are still in a state of war,
just like the Republic of China (Taiwan) VS the People’s Republic of China.
Therefore, China shouldn't declare victory over a war that has not yet ended
as per the agreement, in other words, officially.
But from the perspective of the people, China definitely lost.
First of all, North Korea lost a bit of its territory.
Second, about 50,000 UN troops were killed, whereas the death count of Chinese soldiers
many scholars believe was between 500,000 and 1 million.
Even considering the official data, 200,000 deaths, we cannot say that China won.
China's official data shows a death toll ratio of the two sides close to 1 to 1.
This is totally unreasonable. Everyone knows that China used the "Human Wave Attack" tactics.
Needless to say, the United Nations Army had far superior weapons and equipment.
Even with bare hands,
given the quality of the Chinese soldiers at the time, could they tie with American soldiers?
You can see how fake this data is if you think about it.
Lie NO. 5: China resisted the US and aided Korea, so North Koreans are very grateful to China.
Speaking of the Korean War,
Chinese people naturally think of the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army, consisting of millions of people,
majestic, powerful, crossing the Yalu River.
In the end, hundreds of thousands of them died in a foreign country
defending North Korea, so North Koreans should be very grateful to China.
But in fact, according to Chinese people traveling to North Korea,
they didn't see any monuments in North Korea.
They thought that after so many Chinese soldiers died, North Korea would have monuments everywhere.
Later, they asked local people, and learned that the North Koreans never knew about China helping North Korea in the war.
China’s participation in the Korean War was deliberately covered up by North Korean authorities.
China fooled its people into thinking that the war was to "resist the US and aid Korea".
North Korea fooled its people into thinking that it was "Kim Il Sung who led the people in resisting US intruders".
So most North Koreans are grateful to the Kim family, not to China.
Let’s briefly review the history between China and North Korea after the Korean War.
In 1958, Kim Il Sung launched a purge, and pro-China party members were brutally executed.
The Chinese "volunteers" who remained in North Korea were also purged and driven back to China.
In 1967, Kim Il Sung ordered the destruction of the Volunteer Army Cemetery.
Mao Anying's tombstone was also smashed to pieces.
When China and South Korea established diplomatic relations in 1992, North Korea immediately assembled a large army on China's northeastern border,
and threatened to establish diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
Beijing lost its bid to host the Olympic games to Sydney in 1993 by one vote.
North Korea voted for Sydney.
Every year, China provides North Korea with most of its food and energy supplies,
in addition to billions of US dollars in economic aid.
But North Korea has frequently condoned its army crossing China's border to rob and kill.
So, to sum up, the Korean War, by nature,
was a war started by the terrorist Kim family.
The CCP, by joining the war, saved this terrorist organization which has existed to this day.
But this terrorist organization is China’s neighbor,
who has been taking advantage of China, and frankly speaking, China deserves it.
But luckily for the Chinese people, Prince Mao was killed in the Korean War,
so that the Mao Dynasty ended after Mao Zedong's death,
and Reform and Opening Up began, so that China did not fully go down a communist path like North Korea.
This was the biggest and only contribution of the Korean War to the Chinese people.
Alright, time to hear your comments.
In our last episode, we analyzed the status quo of the Chinese medicine industry and the shadiness behind it,
and defined those Chinese medicines sold on the market in China but unable to pass scientific certification as fake drugs.
Netizens Cool May and Laurence0227 shared with us the difference between Taiwan and China in terms of medicine:
TCM audits are stricter, and Taiwan’s TCM system is more modern.
Netizen Me Pick said,
"Many people 'dare' not to see a doctor in China.
'Huang An' had to fly back to Taiwan to see a western doctor, which says a lot about how poisonous the "Chinese medicine" is."
Netizen Yuen said, "China’s traditional medicine has secret ingredients.
In Taiwan, ingredients of both Chinese medicine and western medicine must be disclosed clearly."
Netizen CloudBook Schen revealed,
"My grandma used to have a pharmaceutical wholesale company in Beijing,
and made a lot of money after years of fake accounting, and the whole family moved to the US."
Netizens support subscribing to the Organic Leek Channel said,
"Western medicine is divided into many disciplines systematically, and different roles are clearly defined.
By contrast, Chinese medicine is a mess."
Netizen se7enthM00n is an American pharmacist.
"There’s no such thing as conventional or alternative medicine.
Only medicine that works and medicine that does not."
Netizen Zeng Tiexiong said, "Everything the CCP touches dies."
Pink Guard With An Authoritative Expert Certificate said,
"Chinese or Western medicine, under the control of the CCP, turns to crap."
Netizen Winnie Money Giver said, "General secretary Xi must think that China can't get imported drugs once cut off from the rest of the world,
so he vigorously promotes Chinese medicine."
Netizen Xiao Xunzi said that there should be a rule: Communists are forbidden to receive Western medicine treatment!
Alright, that's all for this video.
Thank you so much for your comments.
This is Klaus. See you next time.