Scenes from a Communist Nuclear Power

It is said that history is written by the victors of war but what happens when that war just happens to result in a stalemate on the 38^th Parallel? Two opposing accounts of history it appears, as I discovered during a recent trip with Senia and Sydney friend Francois to Dandong; China’s closest point to North Korea.

Dalian’s proximity to historical strategic points continues to amaze. Last year I wrote about Lushun, known in the west as Port Arthur, the natural deep sea harbour that guards the entrance into the Bohai Sea and its direct passage to Tianjin and Beijing. About an hour and a half from downtown Dalian, this was the site of the Sino – Japanese and Russo – Japanese wars as well as being the point from where the Japanese launched their entire offensive into China and the creation of the puppet state of Manchukuo. Just 3 and a half hours from downtown Dalian is the city of Dandong, the border town where the Chinese “Volunteer Army” crossed over into Korea to go head to head with American and UN troops during the Korean War.

The trip to Dandong was pleasant enough. Frequent schedules to the town from Dalian enabled us to get a new bus with plenty of leg room for all and a reprise from the usually packed like sardines feeling you get on China’s public transport system. Some advice from friends who had visited earlier paid dividends as we quickly located a suitably priced hotel and then the adventure began. Wasting no time we hit the infamous 抗美援朝纪念馆 which I believe roughly translates into “Memorial museum commemorating assistance to Korea in resisting US aggression”.

It is perhaps wise at this point to provide some context. My extremely scant knowledge of the Korean War was learnt during Year 12 lessons on the “Cold War” where we were taught anything Red and Russian was bad and that our nuclear saviour was the emergently victorious US of A thanks largely in part to a perestroika focused Gorbachev. From memory and recent western literature, the Chinese with the help of their Russian military backers made first moves into Korean civil war which then “forced” a retaliation from the American led UN forces. Fighting went to and fro and ended in an armistice on the 38^th parallel which to this day separates the vibrant South Korean and its capital Seoul from the testy Kim Jong Il and his capital Pyongyang.

As such, you can imagine our surprise when arriving at this museum and spending a good 2 hours browsing its walls we found tales of Chinese heroics against an imperialistic force hellbent on destroying the stability of the recently formed People’s Republic of China.

Among the highlights which have been captured and attached in digital detail:-

http://picasaweb.google.com/terence.koo/Dandong2007

• Reference to the imperialist Americans as ‘running dogs’ by Mao Ze Dong;
• Statements of fact that it was indeed America that provoked the war by encroaching upon the territory of the peace loving Chinese forcing them into retaliation in the interests of national security;
• Pictures of the volunteer army crossing the bridge at Dandong into North Korea;
• Evidence of American plans to use biological / bacteriological warfare that were thwarted by the Chinese;
  
• Plentiful remnants of the antiquated machinery that the Chinese had to rely onto to eventually ‘defeat’ their more numerous and technologically advanced imperialist oppressors; and
• An awesome exhibition hall that had been turned into a multimedia battlefield scene. Fantastically realistic and one of the best done museum war recreations that I have seen anywhere in the world.

The rest of this quick 2 day trip involved:-

• Eating Korean cuisine whilst being hosted by North Korean exchange students who duly danced and sang for our entertainment;
• Visiting 虎山长城 (Tiger Mountain Great Wall) which is one end of the Great Wall that extends all across China;
• Walking along the Yalu river which separates Dandong from North Korea and hitting a point called 一步跨 (One step across) where you could probably cross in 2 jumps if you were not afraid of patrolling North Koreans;
• Actually coming across and witnessing the time old practice of tying up cormorant’s necks and using them to fish; and
• Spending some much needed catch up time with Francois, swapping stories from his pediatrician background with my China business experiences as well as the last 6 months of Sydney gossip =).

The bus trip home, prior to taking Francois for his last meal in Dalian of goat hot pot, was time for reflection. Indeed who really knows what is fact and what is propaganda? As young students, the lens through which we interpret our impressions of those foreign to us is unconsciously shaped by which side of the fence we are on. An American / Australian will be able to put a case forward on the need at the time to fight the Korean and Vietnam wars to prevent the spread of an inferior ideology. In the same way, there are those in China who will quote modern examples of Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the portrayals of modern media in both China and Korea to argue that history has shown America’s desire to fight first and negotiate peace later.

The truth it can be argued, is probably somewhere in the middle. If this is true; if one believes that we can indeed learn from history and that that history does in fact repeat itself, perhaps we should all make an effort to get as balanced as possible a view so that the so called “successes” of the past don’t become the “mistakes” of the future. Food for thought regardless ;-)