General He Lei recalls the PLA’s successful expulsion of American troops from North Korea in 1950 as he warns that China will be “ready for war” amid growing tensions between Washington and Beijing.
Seventy years ago, in October 1950, Chinese troops crossed the Yalu River into North Korea. Labelled the ‘People’s Volunteers’ they set out to confront an imminent threat to their homeland.
General Douglas MacArthur, leading a United States coalition against Pyongyang, had succeeded not only in thwarting Kim Il Sung’s bid to take the South, but sought to advance beyond the 38th parallel to terminate the DPRK altogether.
He made no secret about what he planned to do next: he spoke of “continuing” the Korean War into China and dropping a number of atomic bombs around the border to nullify Beijing’s strategic influence on the neighboring peninsula.
Fearing strategic encirclement and checkmate by Washington, Mao Zedong decided to intervene in the war, sending millions of troops into Korea.
Despite at that time being an impoverished country with an essentially peasant army; China’s forces overran the UN coalition and forced them back into the South.
The time that has elapsed since this battle hasn’t made it any less relevant.
Facing an increasingly hostile United States on the global stage, People’s Liberation Army General He Lei recalled the victory of 1950 in a jibe against Washington, saying China “[has] the will to fight and the confidence to win” and “We will work hard to cultivate the will to fight, strengthen our sense of mission, responsibility and urgency to be ready for war.”
The memories in Beijing of what they describe as the “war to resist American aggression” have not been forgotten.
The successful intervention into the Korean War and the rescue of the DPRK against a far superior opponent is heralded as the symbolic end to “China’s century of humiliation” by Western powers and newly found confidence in itself.
The highly charged comments reflect the growing atmosphere of public fear as to whether these two powers will ultimately clash militarily, especially given America’s escalation of tensions in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait by ramping up military exercises.
Some scholars have often spoken of the ‘Thucydides Trap’, inspired by the wars between Athens and Sparta, whereby two great powers become locked in a spiraling rivalry which leads, inevitably, to war.
With China the rising power and the US the “status quo” eager to suppress Beijing’s rise, one wonders what the eventual outcome will be.
Whilst General He’s remarks were not an accident, China’s leaders are by no means seeking a physical conflict with the US, or even an outright quest for hegemony.
Although America’s leaders constantly frame Beijing as a “threat,” in practice this is misleading and is based on dated Cold War clichés and deliberate fearmongering to manufacture consent for US foreign policy.
Beijing has no serious intention of waging a zero-sum cold war struggle against Washington, nor does it attempt to proliferate its ideology overseas.
It would much rather maintain productive ties with America and seek a stable international environment in order to secure continuing economic growth.
Yet this isn’t where we are. International relations are not about “good intentions.” A neo-realist will tell you it is the structural implications of the global system which forces states to respond to their environment.
China is not seeking confrontation with the US, but the past few years nevertheless oblige Beijing, whether they like it or not, to respond to this environment and prepare for it.
Washington is aiming to strategically encircle China’s periphery through visions such as ‘The Indo-Pacific’, increasing support to Taiwan and escalation in the South China Sea.
As a result, Xi Jinping has no choice but to respond to these efforts, just as China did in Korea in 1950, otherwise he risks being strategically outplayed.
Passivity and good will towards the United States won’t change the situation.
China will continue to try and talk Washington out of its current path, but to only do such would be ignoring the military dynamic at its own peril.
Therefore, whilst nobody can truly say how this growing confrontation will end, talk of a ‘Thucydides Trap’ ultimately matters. China is confident, but cautious.
Whilst General He’s opinion represents a militarist view, and not one publicly spoken by China’s civilian leaders, his appearance in the international media is not an ad-hoc event or mere coincidence.
The messaging is deliberate: Beijing is not openly looking for a fight, but what the historical legacy of the Korean War shows us is that it is prepared to do what it feels is needed in order to protect its strategic proximity.
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Tom Fowdy is a British writer and analyst of politics and international relations with a primary focus on East Asia.
Published by Rt.com
Republished by The 21st Century
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of 21cir.
[Editorial note: In order to aid our global viewers’ understanding of general characters of all the imperialist wars including the Korean War: genocide, massacre, destruction, evilness, atrocity, barbarousness, greed, criminality, brutality, cruelty, savagery, severity, nihility, inhumanity, human suffering, and so on, we compiled the following photos from the early part of the Korean War (June 25, 1950 to July 27, 1953), specifically from one of the most humiliated US battles, known, the “Battle of Jangjin (Chosin, in Japanese) Reservoir” (from Nov. 26 to Dec. 13, 1950), known as the “worst military defeat in US’ winter war history”, “the deadliest escape in the US war history”, etc.]
The Chinese Gen He is very correct about the aggressive , blood thirsty coward war mongering terror state USA and its terrorist allies UK, Canada, New Zealand ,Australia etc.
China can surely beat these puffed arrogant cowards who hide behind feminism skirts to spread their poisonous propaganda whilst looting and brutalising innocent people in different nations around the world. The moto of US and its UK , Israel etc allies is Lies , deception , stealing and murder including committing war crimes on a global scale.
The US/UK western evil empire is racist , full of bigotry and cannot stomach the truth about their evil criminality around the globe. They are terrified of truth and they smear and demonize China, Russia etc for standing for justice ,truth and equality among all humanity. All the US/UK and their criminal allies knows is mass killing , genocide, looting and monetary slavery of the world.
the west led by terrorist state USA, operates on the law of the jungle and have been doing so for at least the last 500 years. International law and the UN charter mean absolutely nothing to western countries led by America unless it suits their purposes to beat target nations over the brow with but when it goes against them they simply just ignore it with impunity, how many times have western countries completely ignored international law and the UN charter?, the bombing of tge former Yugoslavia, the invasion of Iraq, ignoring UN resolutions on israel, illegal occupation of Syria and the plundering of Syrian oil, the bombing of Libya back to the stone age, the list goes on and on, international law means NOTHING to these savages and blood thirsty neanderthals and then they point the fingers and accuse others of uncivilised behaviour. This world will never know peace so long as America exists but its destruction, along with western hegemony, is already underway, their Karma is now knocking on their door and everything they have ever done to the peoples of this planet will be done to them in turn.
Since World War Two the U.S./UK and their criminal allies has killed an estimated 30 million people, none of whom were ever a threat to the US/UK people. Ethically, morally and probably legally every US/UK people are guilty of war crimes. The German people were not let off the hook after WW2. The US/UK people stand guilty, as charged.
The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg concluded, “War is essentially an evil thing. Its consequences are not confined to the belligerent states alone, but affect the whole world. To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.”
U.S. government is a pathological liar. It uses countless Big Lies and distortions used by both right wings of the US one-party state to advance its imperial agenda.
The past two decades have been especially rich with its lies. George W. Bush winning the election in 2000 was a lie. The attacks of 9/11 were lies, the invasion of Afghanistan was based on a lie, Iraq weapons of mass destruction were a lie, Iran’s nuclear weapons program is a lie, the Katrina Hurricane response was a lie, the Russian invasion of Georgia was a lie, the 2009 bailout of the Wall Street was based on lies, the Ukraine coup was lied about, Gaddafi’s Viagra was a lie, the moderate rebels was a lie, the lie that Venezuela is a threat to the US is a lie, the White Helmets are a propaganda lie, Russiagate is a lie, the Douma chemical attack was a lie, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons report was a lie, the torture of Chelsea Manning is lied about, the Julian Assange lie is a lie.
Covid-19 has low mortality rate compared to other illnesses and is not worth to be categorized as a pandemic. The psychopathic Bill Gates alongside his criminal funding of the corrupt WHO , GAVI (Global Alliance For Vaccines) and corrupt despot dictator governments in the capitalist western system are the ones driving this deception on world population. The aim as rightly pointed out is a criminal enterprise of stealing and wealth transfer into fewer hands in society, 2nd is the total control through ID2020 nano chip via poisonous vaccines containing glyphosate to be administered by WHO, GAVI, CDC using the corrupt governments laws and military to give enforced epijet vaccines. They also use famine and starvation forced on populations under criminal lockdowns to achieve this sick agenda. Bill Gates has even bribed Nigerian Government to pass corrupt law to vaccinate all Nigerians and was only stopped by the opposition parties in the country see this (https://www.21cir.com/2020/05/bill-gates-reportedly-offered-a-10-million-bribe-to-use-nigerian-children-in-coronavirus-vaccine-experiments/). This mass murder enterprise is primarily run by corrupt heartless and psychopathic War criminals US of A, UK , EU (see this : – http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=207976), Israhell etc. All should be tried under Nuremberg international law for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The US hubris and arrogance knows no bounds! The US is a law less criminal terrorist rogue state that thinks its invincible. Kudos to Maduro and all Venezuelans for standing up to the criminal psychopath mass murdering evil thieving looting empire. Its main tools are war of aggression, political subversion, evil criminal sanctions that kill innocent civillians, deception and corruption. The US is backed up in all this by its psychopathic criminal allies- vassal states UK, Canada, EU, Israhell, etc.
It is a shame the US and its criminal allies (UK, Canada, Australia, Israhell etc), blame China for COVID-19 , yet its the US who created it at Fort Detrick (North Carolina) , then released it on China during world military games in Wuhan Oct 2019. Bill Gates even ran a simulation exercise in Oct 2019 termed Event 201, of a virus named SARS-2 covid, where he predicted pandemic deaths of 65m people. The virus later appeared in China in 2019 Dec after the 300 US servicemen have infected the staff at The Orient Express in Wuhan where they stayed during world military games in oct 2019. Corona deaths started in US North Carolina around Fort Detrick in Sept 2019 of which 14000 died and US lied to the WHO that these deaths were from Influenza. CDC director refuted these lies and confirmed to US corrupted greedy Congress that the deaths were due to Corona Virus (Covid-19)in Mar 2020. So the master arsonist, lights the fire, then blames the victim china for it. This is just how psychopathic the US is.
Very precise! Bill Gates is a psychopath criminal hell bent on wiping out humanity especially the 90 % of world population he calls ‘’useless eaters’’. Look up agenda 2030 or 2020 ID ONLINE. He has already tried to bribe Nigerian government this month with 10M USD, to test poison laden corona vaccince (containing glyphosate etc) on unsuspecting Nigerian population! Italian MP Sara Cunial is right, Bill Gates should be arrested and hanged for murder in African, India etc. His country, the US is the number one thieving looting criminal, terrorist, dictatorship nation with fake democracy in the world. Currently the US is stealing Syria’s oil in broad day light backed up by its criminal allies UK, Australia Canada etc. It instigates wars of aggression against innocent civilians in foreign nations, and funds and props up despotic brutal regimes, dictators around the world. This is accomplished through its CIA run fake NGO USAID, NED etc. The US has murdered millions of human beings since WII and continues to commit genocide and war crimes undercover of its fake criminal R2P extra territorial criminal interventions. Yet there is no meaningful opposition among the US population against US war crimes and acts of aggression, mass murder, genocide and heartless psychopathy even in these times of COVID-19? See how the US and its populace is happy to kill innocent women and children by blocking COVID-19 MEDICAL AID to Iran, Venezuela, Cuba etc ? Including stealing medical kits meant for other countries that are in need of help.
Americans are sick at heart and soul, they are psychopathic mass murderers and heartless killers, Just look at the mass shootings!! The US is one sick psychopathic nation whose leaders commit mass murder, lies and deceive the world non stop, alongside its five eyes criminal allies UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada etc. All should be tried for war crimes and mass murder under Nuremberg international law!!! Right now the US is busy training ISIS terrorists at Al-Tanf Syria illegal US occupation base, then unleashing them on Syria , middle east, Africa, asia , south America etc. to commit heinous crimes (decapitating women and children’s civilian heads, eating their brains , rape and murder etc. see this link- https://www.globalresearch…. Who would trust the US and its evil deception in trade, media , wars of aggression, poison medicine made by its criminal pharma companies, poison food agriculture by its evil Monsanto etc? Remember the war of lies based on fake narrative of Iraq’s saddam’s WMD, Libya and Gadafi soldiers using Viagra to rape women? Kuwaiti princes posing as some poor girl lying on tv about babies being removed from incubators? And what about the latest Syria’s Assad being falsely accused of chemical attack in Douma with corrupt OPCW producing now thoroughly debunked criminal fake report to instigate war against Syria? Now US is stealing Syria’s oil in broad daylight backed by criminal allies UK, Australia, Israhell etc? What about US training and funding terrorists aka moderate rebels in Altanf illegal US invasion camp in Syria, then unleashing it on Syria and beyond? Lastly, have you seen US destructive wars based on pure lies on Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan , Yemen, Somalia, Congo, South America , Syria etc. etc
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