The security of the Korean Peninsula is related to the stability of Northeast China, which is a key region for New China’s transition from an agricultural to an industrial nation. In the face of American expansion, China realized it had to stand up. On October 5, 1950, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China made the decision to "resist America and aid Korea, protect the home and defend the country." Mao Zedong even sent a telegram to Kim Il-sung on October 8, formally deciding to send volunteer troops to fight in Korea. The volunteer soldiers had no modern equipment, lacked sufficient winter clothing, carried rifles on their shoulders, and crossed the Yalu River in the icy cold, launching a battle that shook the heavens and wept the ghosts. The war lasted three years and ultimately ended with the signing of the armistice agreement on July 27, 1953. The sacrifices in this battle were immense, with 183,108 soldiers of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army killed and 383,218 wounded. However, in this arduous battle, the volunteer army fought alongside the Korean people with iron will, ultimately driving the American and United Nations forces out of Korean territory.
How do North Korean textbooks describe this history?
History should be objective, but the situation is quite different in North Korean textbooks. Regarding the causes of the Korean War, the official version from North Korea is that South Korea, with the support of the United States, launched an invasion of North Korea. It was not North Korea that initiated the war, but rather the "barbaric invasion" by the United States and South Korea against the North.
When describing the reasons for American intervention in the war, North Korean textbooks state that the United States entered the Korean Peninsula under the name of the "United Nations Forces" to "condemn" North Korea's so-called acts of aggression and demanded that North Korea retreat to north of the "38th parallel." However, in reality, the intervention of the United Nations forces and the landing at Incheon did indeed reverse the situation, turning the Korean People's Army from an advantage to a disadvantage, making the war situation extremely urgent at one point. As for the reasons for the intervention of the Chinese Volunteer Army, North Korean textbooks are vague and even deliberately evasive. The books only mention that, at North Korea's request, China sent troops to aid Korea "due to the threat to its security from the United Nations forces." However, there is no mention of the immense sacrifices and contributions made by China in this war. On the contrary, the textbooks attribute all the glory of victory to Kim Il-sung, claiming that it was his outstanding military strategy and command that allowed Korea to "independently and autonomously defeat the American imperialists and the South Korean puppet regime" in this war.
Why is China's contribution to aiding Korea not recognized?
In earlier years, North Korean textbooks and official documents occasionally mentioned the contributions of the Chinese Volunteer Army. However, since the outbreak of the North Korean nuclear crisis in 2016, due to the Chinese government repeatedly urging North Korea to abandon nuclear weapons, the North Korean authorities have shown great dissatisfaction with China. As a result, content regarding China's aid to Korea gradually disappeared from North Korean textbooks, even being completely erased.
The Korean Central News Agency even stated in related reports: "China should honestly acknowledge who has been fighting hard on the front lines of the anti-American struggle for over 70 years, thwarting American invasion schemes, and contributing to the maintenance of peace and security in mainland China, and should first express gratitude to North Korea." Implicitly, North Korea believes that it is their anti-American war that protected China's interests, and that China should be grateful to North Korea, rather than the other way around.
Historical lessons from the War to Resist America and Aid Korea
Although the history of the War to Resist America and Aid Korea has been deliberately downplayed or even distorted in North Korean textbooks, history is ultimately not a little girl that can be dressed up at will; its truth will always exist in our hearts. Regardless, the Chinese nation has shed blood and made sacrifices on this land of Korea, and this fact can never be erased.
For more information, you can visit https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hans/%E6%9C%9D%E9%B2%9C%E6%88%98%E4%BA%89 to learn about the Korean War.