BEIJING: President Xi Jinping has issued a sharp warning to potential“invaders” of Beijing’s military resolve, speaking on the 70th anniversaryof his nation’s entry into the Korean War, the only time Chinese forceshave fought US rivals.
In a long speech on Friday, heavy on patriotism and flecked by anecdotes ofheroism by Chinese forces, Xi said victory in the 1950-53 conflict was areminder that his nation stood ready to fight anyone “creating trouble… onChina’s doorstep”.
“After arduous battles, Chinese and North Korean troops, armed to theirteeth, defeated their opponents, shattering the myth of the invincibilityof the US military, and forcing the invaders to sign the armisticeagreement on July 27, 1953,” Xi said.
The Korean War is a key foundation story for the ruling Communist Party,which in recent years has been the target of US President Donald Trump, ina bitter row spanning trade, tech, human rights, and the status of Taiwan,which China says is an inviolable part of the mainland.
“Let the world know that ‘the people of China are now organised, and arenot to be trifled with,” Xi said, quoting Mao Zedong, the founding fatherof the People’s Republic of China.
“Chinese people don’t create troubles, nor are we afraid of them,” Xi saidto applause.
“We will never sit back and watch any damage to our national sovereignty…and we will never allow any force to invade or divide the sacred territoryof the motherland.”
On Wednesday, the Pentagon announced it had agreed to sell over one billiondollars’ worth of missiles to self-governing Taiwan, the sharpest potentialflashpoint with US forces.
Message ‘directly addressed’ to US
The Korean War was the first and so far only time Chinese and US forceshave engaged in large-scale direct combat.
According to the Chinese government, more than 197,000 Chinese soldiersdied during the three-year war, which saw the US-led United Nationscoalition pushed back to the 38th parallel bisecting the Korean Peninsulaafter China weighed in on the side of North Korea’s communist army.
With tensions again running high between Beijing and Washington, China ismaking much of the 70th anniversary of its forces entering the fight, bothfor domestic consumption as well as a warning to its superpower rivals.
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Chinese state media have conducted daily interviews with Chinese veteranswho survived the war during prime-time news over the past week.
An action-thriller “Sacrifice”, directed by three of the biggest names inChinese cinema and depicting a small band of Chinese troops holding off USforces in the final days of the war-hit cinemas across the country onFriday.
“This should be seen as a message directly addressed to the United States,there is no ambiguity here”, Alice Ekman, an analyst specialising in Chinaat the European Union Institute for Security Studies said before the speech.
“Xi is invoking the spirit of war in a broad sense.”
Strong Beijing-Pyongyang ties
China and North Korea have worked to improve relations in the past twoyears after they deteriorated as Beijing backed a series of UN sanctionsagainst Pyongyang over its nuclear activities.
Xi and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un have met five times since March2018, even as nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang havehit a standstill.
By commemorating the anniversary “China is declaring to the US that it wasnot afraid of the US in the past, and is still not afraid of the US now”,said Shi Yinhong, professor of international politics at Renmin University.
“It’s to prepare for a possible limited military conflict with the US”, Shisaid.
Courtesy: TRTWorld
