Enemy on the doorstep: China's involvement in the Korean War

on october the 1st 1950 a large crowd filled tiananmen square in beijing they were celebrating the first anniversary of the founding of the people's republic of china the joyous occasion was marked by music and cheering [Music] [Applause] from the podium on the gate of heavenly peace mao zedong delivered a speech he and the other chinese leaders seemed relaxed [Applause] [Music] but their calm exterior belied their knowledge of a threat the fledgling people's republic was facing to its very existence [Music] by october the first war had been raging on the korean peninsula for over three months with the tide turning against his forces kim il-sung leader of the democratic people's republic of korea wrote to mao zedong asking for military assistance we are obliged to ask for your special help in the event of an enemy attack north of the 38th parallel we very much hope that the chinese people's liberation army will assist our forces on the same day mao zedong also received a telegram from soviet leader joseph stalin if you consider it possible to send troops to assist the koreans then you should move at least five to six divisions towards the 38th parallel at once on the first anniversary of its founding the nascent state received letters from the leaders of two of its neighbors asking for military assistance how had this come about the korean peninsula lies in northeast asia bordering china and the former soviet union in 1910 korea had been annexed by japan following the japanese surrender in august 1945 korea was divided along the 38th parallel into u.s and soviet spheres of influence on august the 15th 1948 the republic of korea with singh munree as its president was established in the southern half of the peninsula less than a month later on september the 9th the democratic people's republic of korea was founded in the north under the leadership of kim il-sung should enjoy on june 25th 1950 a sunday civil war broke out on the korean peninsula not the day after the outbreak of war the united states sprang into action mobilizing its naval and air forces under the command of general douglas macarthur so macarthur understood that if america didn't get involved straight away then the war would be won the north would occupy the whole peninsula and it'd be very difficult then to you know retake the south it'd be much more controversial to then get involved when the fighting it actually and being concluded it was essentially a very rapid decision taken one that essentially was was probably illegal in international law as well it wasn't a un decision it was actually before the un has taken the necessary measures to to allow the united states to get involved the day after it started bombing the korean peninsula the u.s convinced the united nations to offer what was termed necessary aid to south korea the u.s government also ordered its seventh fleet into the taiwan strait the clear intention was to prevent the liberation of taiwan by chinese mainland forces [Music] the island of taiwan had been occupied by the kuomintang during the chinese civil war by june 1950 the people's liberation army was ready to liberate it this was seen as an act against chinese sovereignty they believed that china had the rightful governance over taiwan but from an american perspective they could easily ignore this they knew that the chinese didn't have the capacity to threaten the seventh fleet there evidently the move was part of the u.s strategy of isolating and surrounding china the truman actually gave much greater assistance from that date too to the french in in the china where they were fighting against the viet minh in a communist insurrection there as they believed again that the chinese were going to come into to that conflict by june 1950 the nascent people's republic of china was facing threats from many sides but the protests by the people's republic of china just a year into its existence fell on deaf ears in the international community [Music] on june 28 1950 three days after the start of hostilities in korea mao zedong gave a speech in it he stated that the affairs of each country in the world should be administered by the people of that particular country and the affairs of asia should be administered by the asian people and not by the united states his remarks prompted people across china to take to the streets and voice their opposition to u.s aggression [Music] but still china's relative isolation in 1950 meant that the rest of the world remained largely unaware of its people's outrage in november of that year china's special representative to the united nations wu xio chuen raised the mata in a speech to the security council the korean civil war cannot in any way justify or excuse america's armed aggression against taiwan dear delegates can you imagine italy having the right to occupy corsica because of the spanish civil war can you imagine the united kingdom having the right to occupy florida because of the mexican civil war this would be nonsensical and inconceivable however china's protests did nothing to slow the us military intervention in korea's civil war late in the evening of october the first the cpc's core leadership of mao zedong judo leo xiaoti and joe and lai held an emergency meeting the sole agenda item was whether china should heed the call from the dprk and soviet union and intervene in the korean conflict mao zedong and the other leaders barely slept that night in the early hours of october the second mao drafted a telegram to stalin he wrote we have decided to send part of the armed forces into korea under the title of volunteer army that afternoon the cpc central committee convened a second expanded meeting to continue the discussion barely a year old at the time the people's republic was lagging behind in virtually every field the country was producing on average just over a ton of grain and less than 160 kilos of cotton per hectare annual steel production was 158 000 tons [Music] over 80 percent of the population was illiterate on june the 6th 1950 just 19 days before the outbreak of the korean war the chinese government had launched a new economic plan its goal over a period of three years was to restore the country's economy and finances to their levels in 1936 prior to the full-scale japanese invasion china was also in the midst of a reform that would give land free of charge to more than 300 million farmers in order to speed up the economic recovery and reduce military expenditure also in june the chinese government had announced a major reduction in the army's strength one and a half million soldiers were to be demobilized and joined the workforce in life for everyone from the common soldiers to china's top leaders was about to be turned on its head [Music] the 38th parallel north which cuts across the middle of the korean peninsula was a manufactured political dividing line at the yalta conference in february 1945 the leaders of the us uk and soviet union had decided that once japan was defeated the korean peninsula should be placed under a temporary international trusteeship pending the establishment of an independent democratically elected government on august the 8th 1945 the soviet union declared war on japan the next day its troops entered northeast china later in the evening of the same day at a hurriedly arranged meeting the u.s decided that the 38th parallel should be the dividing line between its sphere of influence in south korea and that of the soviet union in the north however a line on a map cannot stop an advancing army by late september 1950 u.s and south korean forces were approaching the 38th parallel on october the 2nd after many hours of debate the cpc leadership had still not reached a consensus on whether chinese forces should be dispatched to korea this is after weighing all the options mao zedong decided against sending the telegram drafted earlier that morning informing stalin of china's decision to dispatch troops to korea instead the message would be to the opposite effect as mao zedong informed soviet ambassador nikolai roshin many comrades in the central committee of the communist party of china judge that it is necessary to show caution here if we advance several divisions and the enemy forces us to retreat and this moreover provokes an open conflict between the usa and china then our entire plan for peaceful construction will be completely ruined significantly though mao also stated that a final decision has not been taken on this question [Music] subsequently mao asked premier joe and lai to issue a further warning to the u.s but because the two countries did not have diplomatic relations on october the third premier joe approached indian ambassador kavalam madava panika with a request that he relay china's message [Music] the chinese message reached the united states later on october the third however the americans concluded that china was bluffing meanwhile in china the discussions continued on october the fourth a special flight arrived in beijing on board was pong der huay military commander and administrator of northwest china from the airport pong rushed straight to the government compound at zhong nang hai beijing it was only when he was in the meeting room at jong-nan high that pong learned he'd been summoned to discuss the career issue [Music] pong didn't speak during that meeting afterwards he returned to his hotel room but he could not sleep general pong de huay had spent most of his life since the age of 18 on the battlefield he had earned a reputation for decisive action but this time he needed time to think at dawn on october the 5th mao called pong de huay back to jongnaan hai the two men shared a long history they had fought side by side for over 20 years against the kuomintang and the japanese aggressors now once again mao was turning to his old comrade in arms foreign hung and mao were of one mind long-term strategic importance outweighed any potential temporary losses and the situation was already precarious [Music] its northeast region which borders the korean peninsula was a key industrial base for china foreign [Music] the situation on the battlefield was confirming such fears beginning in august american planes had been repeatedly attacking the china dprk border region foreign [Music] several strong protests with the united states over its actions from an american's perspective these warnings from beijing from joanne lai came too late you know they'd effectively done what they wanted to do they were going to continue to push on to the border um believing that you know china wouldn't intervene once this had been achieved from a u.s perspective what could china to could china do they saw the prc as very weak militarily backward in comparison to their their own forces even if they did intervene they were very confident they'd be able to to push the chinese back the debate on whether to dispatch troops continued on the afternoon of october the fifth after most of those present had shared their views it was pung to hawaii's turn to speak gradually a consensus was reached foreign [Music] millet is a major food crop in northern china at the time millions of people depended on it for their livelihood during the war against japan it was said the chinese red army was armed with only millet and rifles in the early days of the prc inflation was so rampant that millet took the role of a currency the budget drawn up by the chinese government in 1951 was worth just 2.2 billion u.s dollars even though only 200 million was set aside for the military china was still prepared to send troops to korea after several hours of debate late in the afternoon of october the fifth the meeting agreed to support the position of mao zedong and [Music] [Music] on the evening of the following day october the 6th mao zedong informed soviet ambassador nikolai roshjin of the central committee's decision at 10 p.m roshin sent a telegram to stalin it read mao zedong noted that they are ready to start moving their divisions in the next few days but he believes it is not appropriate to make haste with this [Music] although the decision to send troops to korea had been taken china's leaders were still waiting for the right opportunity to act three months earlier a week after u.s forces had landed in south korea mao had instructed joe and lai to convene a conference on the defense of northeast china an outcome of these discussions was the decision taken on july the 13th to establish the northeast border army in august 1950 some 255 000 military personnel including the entire 13th corps of the pla had set out for the china dprk border [Music] nobody ever wants war but when their safety is threatened people feel they have to prepare for it [Music] on october the 7th american troops crossed the 38th parallel and headed north the war was coming to china's doorstep the following day mao zedong issued the order regarding the formation of the chinese people's volunteer army pong de huay was appointed its commander [Music] that morning october the 8th two people left beijing each with an important mission pong de huay was heading to the front line and joe and i was going on a secret trip to the soviet union foreign china's opponent would be the greatest power in the world with an incomparably stronger military capability to confront the greatest military power the world had ever seen all china could muster was an army of poorly equipped volunteers [Applause] to resolve the problem the volunteer army's various core simply swapped weapons on with such a clear disparity in its relative strength with the us china was obliged to turn to the soviet union for assistance when the korean war broke out the soviet union had promised china weapons and air support if it intervened [Applause] on october the 11th premier joe and i met stalin their talks lasted many hours from midnight till late morning the news that it would be many weeks before the soviet union could provide air support reached mao zedong at 3 30 in the afternoon of october the 12th stalin concluded his telegram with the words that he awaited mao's decision as to whether china would move without soviet air cover um foreign at 12 minutes past 10 that evening mao sent his reply our forces have not yet departed i have ordered the chinese army to cease all plans to enter korea however within 24 hours the situation had changed again on the afternoon of october the 13th pong de huay was urgently summoned back to beijing the central committee was once more discussing whether or not to intervene in korea eventually a unanimous decision was reached china would send troops with [Music] who was still in the soviet union in it he informed the premier we believe that we should and must enter this war the benefits of doing so are great as are the costs of staying out on october the 14th senior military leaders including mao zedong and pong de huay finalized the detailed battle plan the 260 thousand troops of the volunteer army were to set out on october the 19th and complete the crossing of the yalu river within 10 days while mao and other chinese leaders were laying their plans u.s forces were pushing towards pyongyang the americans were scenting victory following intelligence reports that the chinese volunteer army was on the move president truman flew to wake island in the pacific in a meeting with general mcarthur the two men discussed whether china was likely to enter the war foreign macarthur's confidence is entirely understandable the united states outmatched china in virtually every field however the americans underestimated china's determination to defend its interests since the 1840s china had experienced one humiliation after another at the hands of western powers impoverished and weak it had suffered many invasions paid vast sums in reparations and seen foreign armies march unopposed across its territory war was nothing new for china during the 14-year japanese invasion the country had fought back from the brink of defeat in 1938 while living in a cave in shanxi province mao zedong had written the book on protracted war [Music] in it he pointed out that weapons are not the decisive factor in war it is people not things that are decisive [Music] one day in august 1946 during china's civil war american journalist anna louise strong interviewed mao in yan-un in his remarks the chinese leader famously dismissed reactionaries as paper tigers he went on to say the outcome of a war is decided by the people not by one or two new types of [Music] weapons in 1950 china was once again facing a battle for survival but this time the enemy was a global [Music] superpower um foreign [Music] nobody wants to go to war or to give up their life needlessly until recently china had been a semi-colony but now its poorest people had been given their own land for the first time no one was ready to have their dreams of a better life shattered [Music] the call to resist america aid korea and protect the motherland reverberated throughout china people donated money and supplies to support the effort to resist the us aggression foreign be the images show the volunteer army preparing for war the men helping the medics across the frozen terrain did so knowing full well that they might be returning on the same stretchers they were carrying the young soldiers were fully aware of what was awaiting them on the battlefield they knew how strong the united states was and yet they pressed on henry kissinger in his book on china discussed why china was willing to send troops to korea what was most unlikely was chinese acquiescence in an american presence at a border that was a traditional invasion route into china and specifically the base from which japan had undertaken the occupation of manchuria and the invasion of northern china china was all the less likely to be passive when such a posture involved a strategic setback on two fronts the taiwan strait and korea by october the 17th two days before its planned entry into career the volunteer army was ready and awaiting final orders then out of the blue a message arrived from the soviet union stalin had changed his mind again stallion says [Music] stalin's refusal to provide air support meant that the volunteer army would be completely unprotected the moment it left chinese territory the soldiers would be horribly exposed to the american artillery [Music] by this time u.s forces under orders from general macarthur were pushing north at full speed towards the yalu river and the china dprk border already pyongyang was under siege when the news reached china mao zedong sent an urgent message to pong de huay ordering him to postpone the crossing of the yalu and to return to beijing on october the 18th the central committee held another meeting it was attended by premier johan lai who was back from the soviet union a nation that had only just emerged from one war was under pressure to enter another the fate of the chinese nation was hanging in the balance the decision was a very difficult one but once taken it would be irrevocable [Music] many years later pang de huay recalled something mao zedong said before finally settling on a decision even if we cannot beat america they will be beholden to us we can fight them again if we so wish throughout the war the u.s never really appreciated how determined the chinese people were to defend their motherland mao zedong himself referred to the strength of their resolve in february 1953 when the war was in its third year [Music] at 6 p.m on october the 19th four army corps and three artillery divisions of the chinese people's volunteer army crossed the yalu river the soldiers were young and mostly uneducated but they knew that with every step forward they were defending peace in the motherland they were leaving behind [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] 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Channel: CGTN

Views: 372,988

Keywords: CGTN, News, China, US, KoreanWar, Documentary, KoreanPeninsula, Korea, War, Army, History, KoreanWar1950

Id: hTvohhM2bWg

Length: 50min 28sec (3028 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 25 2020

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