MESSAGE
| DATE | 2020-11-02 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] Xi's Chinese threats to the US
|
wsj.com
Xi Recalls Anti-U.S. Struggle in Korean War: Chinese People ‘Aren’t to
Be Trifled With’
Chun Han Wong
6-8 minutes
HONG KONG—Chinese leader Xi Jinping delivered a speech brimming with
nationalistic triumph to commemorate his country’s entry into the Korean
War, in a thinly veiled display of defiance against perceived bullying
by the U.S.
Marking the 70th anniversary of Chinese troops joining a beleaguered
North Korea to fight off U.S.-led forces, Mr. Xi on Friday called on
Chinese people to emulate their forebears’ patriotism and resolve in
combating present-day threats to China’s interests posed by foreign
aggressors.
The “War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea,” as it is known in
China, “let the world know that the Chinese people are now organized and
aren’t to be trifled with,” Mr. Xi said at a nationally televised
ceremony held in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, quoting Mao
Zedong’s remarks at a 1953 leadership meeting.
“Once provoked, things will get ugly,” Mr. Xi said, drawing loud
applause from the audience.
Although Mr. Xi didn’t mention current tensions with Washington, his
speech was overtly about standing up to the U.S., said John Delury, a
professor of Chinese studies at Yonsei University in Seoul. “The message
is that we’ve done this before and we can do it again—if anything we can
do it better now, we’re much stronger.”
The speech marked China’s latest rhetorical thrust in fraying ties with
the U.S. that have deteriorated to their worst level in decades.
Wide-ranging discord over trade, technology, global influence and U.S.
support for the island democracy of Taiwan has ravaged relations between
the world’s two largest economies while fueling criticism of Mr. Xi’s
aggressive style among some members of the Beijing elite.
With President Trump and his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, both
saying they would take a tough line with Beijing, Mr. Xi’s speech
indicates that he is buckling down for prolonged tensions. His rousing
rhetoric also suggests he wants to whip up patriotic sentiment to gird
his personal authority, as pandemic-induced economic woes threaten to
stir unrest, China politics watchers say.
Mr. Xi struck a “fearsome” tone in a speech aimed at mobilizing Chinese
society for a struggle, said Deng Yuwen, a former deputy editor at the
Study Times, a newspaper published by Beijing’s Central Party School,
which trains China’s political elite. “His goal is to unify the nation
to resist the U.S.”
Chinese troops during the Korean War, in 1951.
Photo: Department of Defense/ASSOCIATED PRESS
China’s Communist Party has long celebrated the Korean War as a seminal
moment in entrenching its revolutionary victory in the face of Western
imperialist intervention.
Chinese troops, whom Beijing characterized as a volunteer army, entered
combat in October 1950 as U.S.-led United Nations forces threatened to
overwhelm North Korea just months after the war began with Pyongyang’s
invasion of South Korea. The fighting concluded with a 1953 armistice,
but no peace treaty has since been signed, meaning the two Koreas remain
in a technical state of war.
Despite the stalemate, official party histories portray Chinese forces
as victorious in their fight to safeguard national security and halt
Western expansionism in Asia—a narrative Mr. Xi upheld in his speech.
The Friday ceremony was China’s highest-profile commemoration of the
Korean War since 2000, the last time a Chinese leader marked the
occasion with a major memorial address. More recently, Mr. Xi, as
China’s vice president and leader-in-waiting, delivered a speech in 2010
to mark the 60th anniversary of Chinese involvement in the conflict.
Mr. Xi at the Great Hall of the People on Friday. He called on Chinese
people to emulate their forebears’ patriotism and resolve.
Photo: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
Mr. Xi struck a more martial tone on Friday than he did a decade ago. In
his new speech, he cited the spirit of anti-American resistance to
galvanize support for his efforts to strengthen Communist Party
dominance over Chinese society, ensure China’s economic self-reliance
and remold its military into a world-beating fighting force.
“Backwardness begets being bullied, and only through development can we
strengthen ourselves,” Mr. Xi said. “Without a strong military, there
can be no strong motherland.”
Rather than criticize the U.S. directly, Mr. Xi took aim at
unilateralism, protectionism and arrogant, hegemonic behavior—labels
that Beijing has repeatedly pinned on President Trump’s policies toward
China. Mr. Xi also appeared to warn against U.S. attempts to pressure
Beijing through closer cooperation with Taiwan, which the Communist
Party claims as its territory and has pledged to assimilate, by force if
necessary.
China will “never allow any person or any force to violate and split the
motherland’s sacred territory,” Mr. Xi said. “Once such severe
circumstances occur, the Chinese people shall deliver a head-on blow.”
Beijing has been building up this message of patriotic resistance ahead
of Mr. Xi’s speech. State broadcaster China Central Television started
airing a 20-episode documentary series on the Korean War earlier this
month, in which the U.S. is portrayed as an imperialist aggressor—in
line with longstanding Chinese narratives.
Mr. Xi also toured on Monday a new museum exhibition in Beijing
commemorating the Korean War, telling senior officials that the conflict
bequeathed a spiritual legacy that would inspire the Chinese people to
“overcome all difficulties and dangers, and defeat every formidable foe.”
Write to Chun Han Wong at chunhan.wong-at-wsj.com
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