Bringing Peace to Northeast Asia

The key to bringing peace to the Korean peninsula and Northeast Asia lies in understanding the role of China.

Since the Chinese regime’s forces publicly entered the Korean War in October 1950, the regime has claimed to have acted defensively.

On June 21, the Chinese state media outlet Chinanews.com published an article repeating the standard interpretation publicized by the Chinese regime since 1950: The positioning of the U.S. Seventh Fleet to defend Taiwan and the allied troops’ crossing of the 38th parallel into North Korea in October 1950 threatened China’s northern region, causing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to send troops into combat.

But in fact, CCP troops were there at the beginning, in June 1950. Documents in the Soviet archives, including those from the Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation and the Archive of the president of the Russian Federation, show that CCP troops were the main force involved in the invasion of South Korea that started the war.

Before North Korea invaded the south, Mao Zedong had made a commitment to Stalin and Kim Il-sung to send troops. Major General Xu Yan of the People’s Liberation Army, in his book “Mao Zedong and the Korea War,” claimed that the CCP had sent three divisions to North Korea by February 1950.

The CCP had ideological reasons for sending troops. It had relied on the Soviet Union’s help to grow strong and finally seize power in China; at the time, it was ideologically oriented toward the Soviet Union. The CCP’s policy was based on a consideration of the interests of the Eastern bloc, and in this, the CCP was used by the Soviets.

Also, since the communists had won relatively easily in the Chinese civil war, the success went to the leaders’ heads, and they were eager to go to war. They underestimated the fighting power of American troops.

Further fueling the Chinese regime’s desire for war was Mao Zedong, who was a megalomaniac. His character was one of the most important reasons for the CCP plunging into the Korean War.

Unexpectedly, the CCP’s first three military engagements after entering Korea were complete successes. Due to this, today many mainstream Chinese scholars are full of regret that the CCP did not sign a cease-fire treaty earlier.

In any case, the CCP’s hawkish attitude would have gotten it into trouble sooner or later. The CCP’s advances were stopped only when the Party came to know the might of the American military forces.

On the Allied side, the leaders failed to understand the nature of the CCP and the significance of its alliances with the Soviet Union and North Korea. They also did not accurately analyze the nature of CCP leadership, all of which contributed to poor strategic decisions and, as a consequence, mass losses.

Enormous Losses

The war had no winner; the losses on each side were enormous. The Korean peninsula was reduced to ruins, the split between North and South Korea was aggravated, and the pattern for the Cold War was set.

On the surface, the Soviet Union used the Korean War to drag China into a conflict with the United States and temporarily alleviate strategic pressure in Eastern Europe, while selling weapons to the Chinese.

But during the war, the Soviets’ unscrupulous profit seeking was revealed to the Chinese, and the seed for the split between the CCP and the Soviet Union was planted. Since then, the two parties have engaged in a pattern of mutual deception, appearing close but actually feuding, and in the end almost fell into armed conflict.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.