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Beijing frequently uses war anniversaries to issue sparsely covered warnings to the United States about the military strength of the “new China.”
FILE: Chinese President Xi Jinping observes during a state banquet at the Malacanang Presidential Palace in Manila on November 20, 2018. Image: AFP
BEIJING – President Xi Jinping issued a strong warning on Friday to potential “invaders” of Beijing’s military resolution, speaking on the 70th anniversary of his nation’s entry into the Korean War, the only time Chinese forces have fought against American rivals.
In a lengthy speech, laden with patriotism and peppered with anecdotes of the heroism of the Chinese forces, Xi said that victory in the 1950-53 conflict was a reminder that his nation was ready to fight anyone who “created trouble .. . at the door of China. “
Beijing frequently uses war anniversaries to issue sparsely covered warnings to the United States about the military strength of the “new China.”
The Korean War is a pivotal story for the ruling Communist Party, which in recent years has been the target of US President Donald Trump in a bitter dispute spanning trade, technology, human rights and the state. of Taiwan, which China says is an inviolable part of the mainland.
“The Chinese do not create problems nor are we afraid of them,” Xi said to applause.
“We will never sit back and see any damage to our national sovereignty … and we will never allow any force to invade or divide the sacred territory of the homeland.”
On Wednesday, the Pentagon announced that it had agreed to sell more than $ 1 billion worth of missiles to the self-government of Taiwan, the most acute potential flash point with US forces.
‘SACRIFICE’
The Korean War was the first and so far only time that Chinese and American forces have engaged in large-scale direct combat.
According to the Chinese government, more than 197,000 Chinese soldiers died during the three-year war, which pushed back the United Nations coalition led by the United States to the 38th parallel that divided the Korean peninsula, after China weighed on the side of the communists of North Korea. Army.
With tensions rising again between Beijing and Washington, China is seizing the 70th anniversary of the entry of its forces into the fight, intended both for domestic consumption and as a warning to its rival superpowers.
Chinese state media has unleashed a wave of propaganda with daily interviews with Chinese veterans who survived the war during prime-time news last week.
An action thriller “Sacrifice,” directed by three of the biggest names in Chinese cinema and depicting a small band of Chinese troops who hold off US forces in the final days of war-torn cinemas across the country on Friday.
“This should be seen as a message directed directly at the United States, there is no ambiguity here,” Alice Ekman, an analyst specializing in China at the European Union Institute for Security Studies, said before the speech.
“Xi is invoking the spirit of war in a broad sense.”
China and North Korea have worked to improve relations in the past two years after they deteriorated when Beijing backed a series of UN sanctions against Pyongyang for its nuclear activities.
Xi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have met five times since March 2018, even as nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang have stalled.
In commemorating the anniversary, “China declares to the United States that it was not afraid of the United States in the past and that it is still not afraid of the United States now,” said Shi Yinhong, professor of international politics at Renmin University.
“It is to prepare for a possible limited military conflict with the United States,” Shi said.
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