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China Helps North Korea Celebrate 60 Years of Oppression
Written by Robert Vance on September 9, 2008 – 5:02 pmMost of my Chinese friends and students act as if I am claiming that men live on Mars when I tell them about the atrocities that are taking place in North Korea. For them, North Korea is their friendly Communist neighbor and the mere suggestion that people there are dying of starvation or that the regime is murdering entire generations seems to offend people here. Most Chinese people are in complete denial about what is happening in North Korea as is the Chinese government which continues to support, defend, and even praise North Korea at every turn.
On Monday, Beijing held a reception “to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” according to the state owned media outlet Xinhua. The article reports that Jia Qinglin, “top political adviser in China and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference” attended the event.
According to article, “Jia, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, congratulated the DPRK on the anniversary, hailing the DPRK’s economic and social achievements over the past six decades” stating that “we are wholeheartedly glad to see it, and hope to see the DPRK and its people score bigger achievements in their future national construction.”
Come again? What exactly has North Korea achieved economically or socially in the past six decades? The acquisition of nuclear weapons? A 20 million dollar collection of Mercedes Benz vehicles? Getting away with kidnapping actors and Japanese fishermen? Tricking Madeline Albright into believing that North Korea was making some progress? If there is any achievement to be counted for North Korea, it would be that the reclusive regime still has any friends left in the international community.
The Communist Party in China is Kim Jong-il’s strongest ally and has been for a long time. If any country had the chance to try to bring change to North Korea, it would be China. The Chinese government,however, has always chosen to ignore the dismal human rights situation in North Korea for purely selfish reasons. If the fragile political situation in North Korea were to fall apart, the Chinese government would have to deal with millions of North Korean refugees as well as try to help bring stability to the region.
“We have our own problems right now,” explained a student to me recently. “Whatever is happening in North Korea is none of our concern.” This seems to be the general attitude of Chinese people who seem to forget that just 50 years ago, they were living under similar oppression. While my friends seem to be genuinely surprised to hear about the atrocities that are being perpetrated upon the North Korean people, they simply shrug their shoulders.
Unfortunately, this type of attitude seems typical in a culture where people are more than willing to standby and watch others be mugged or injured because becoming involved might be dangerous. While it is true that China has plenty of its own problems, this argument is difficult to accept considering the amount of money that Beijing spent preparing for the 2008 Olympic Games. Besides, what country does not have problems? If China wishes to be Asia’s leader in the near future, it needs to ’step up to the plate’ and see how it can help other Asian nations.
Unfortunately, China also sees North Korea as its little Communist brother and has come to the aid of the regime throughout the past six decades. A beloved son of Chairman Mao lost his life fighting the Americans during the Korean War as did many other young Chinese men. More importantly however, it is likely that China takes comfort in knowing that there are still a few Communist regimes left in the world today. As long as Kim Jong Il’s regime is allowed to survive, the regime in China will not look so bad. Meanwhile, millions of people in North Korea are being tortured and starved to death while the largest country in the world looks on and applauds.
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Yes, I’ve noticed that quite a few Chinese living in the West,especially those still somewhat newly arrived, also have a very ‘ non-chalant’ , ‘don’t get involved’ attitude towards the 27 long years of Mao’s barbarism, as well as the atrocities that continue in North Korea even now, in the 21st century. - ‘Not my problem’ they typically reply, conceding only that perhaps some of Mao’s or Kim’s underlings ‘made some mistakes’, or ‘didn’t follow orders correctly’.- It’s exasperating for most Western people to hear this tripe.
@J.macklby,
Exasperating is definitely the right word. I have even heard some people here wonder why the U.S. doesn’t take care of the problem in North Korea? Right. Whenever there is a problem in the world, it is our responsibility to fix. Whenever we try to fix a problem we get blasted. I guess that’s what happens when you’re a world power.
You are so obnoxious to state that N Korea is an opprressive state. What makes you think you have the moral high ground to judge others? Looking back at your Caucasian history, you Anglo Saxon race has the most evil-to-the-core history for unleashing your untold crimes against all humanity not of the white kind.
N Korea may be backward economically at this moment of history because it is being sanctioned by the evil West. Still, there is no mass murder of its citizens & there is stability in the country. You should respect every one’s right to have his/her own form of government & social system, never mind the system is good or not.
Why is N Korea so important to us Chinese? If N Korea is absorbed into the western sphere of influence, what a nightmare this will present for each time we wake up & open our window to let in some fresh air, we will come face to face with the ugly American GIs staring at us with his M16s! All our heavy industries in our Northeast will be under the direct range of American artillaries & there will be listening posts dotted all around the land scape peeping into every conceivable military moves we conduct. If N Korea is absorbed into one Korea under the West-leaning S Korea, gosh we will have another Vietnam or worse, hostile Japan on our right flange. This scenario is definitely not what we would like to contemplate not if we can held it in a thousand years!
My advice to the author is to keep to your term as a good teacher & not engage in pro western politiking on Chinese soil. Who knows who might be on the CIA payroll like Mr Putin alleged one fellow American teacher in Guangdong as the American agent who actually flew & bombed S Ossetia during the Georgian conflict. I am sure our counter intelligence units are not damn fools & they should know who is who posing as innocent teachers/foreign experts in China.
@Lee Wee Shing,
Look, I hope I am wrong about this but it seems like you are just another Chinese person who could care less about people suffering around the world as long as you have food to eat and a place over your head. You seem to be so typical of the attitude here about North Korea. Complete denial that anything is wrong even though there is a MOUNTAIN of evidence that entire generations are being put to death there just for disagreeing with the government.
As is usual, you bring up history to try to take the focus off what is happening today. You are right, the Anglo Saxon race has done many bad things but we are talking about NOW. There are people in North Korea who are starving to death and being tortured in prisons because of Kim Jong-Il’s evil regime. Who am I to judge? I am a HUMAN BEING who hates to think of other people suffering under the rule of tyranny.
Did you read my article completely? Apparently not! I am not calling for the WEST to get involved in North Korea. I am calling for CHINA to get involved because they are North Korea’s closest friend in the region. I am not even calling for REUNIFICATION. I am calling for the Chinese government to take a stand and help improve the human rights situation in North Korea. Is that too much to ask? Apparently it is, because the Chinese government is more concerned with STABILITY in the region than human lives. If you guys want to be leaders in ASIA, then LEAD. Don’t just sit there and watch people die because it serves your interest.
Again, you come off with a stereotypical bunch of hogwash about the CIA. What is it with you and other Chinese people’s fixation with the CIA? Am I not allowed to have an opinion? Wait, this is China. I guess I’M NOT allowed to have an opinion. I have to sit here and listen to people here spout off their political views but I am not allowed to respond, right? What about Chinese people in the US who have protested against “Free Tibet” this year. isn’t that engaging in PRO-Chinese politking? As is usual, you come up with some conspiracy theory that I am with the CIA just because I have an opinion that differs from yours.
I could care less about PRO Western politiking. What I am doing here is PRO LIFE politiking! You got a problem with that? Do you have a problem with me caring about people who are suffering in North Korea?
FYI, I do NOT engage in political discussions with my students unless they bring politics up. Talking about what is happening in North Korea is not a POLITICAL discussion. It is a discussion about another country that is in desperate need of some help.
I don’t mind having a disagreement with you about this but please don’t bring the CIA into this, ok? Can we talk like two normal human beings without having to resort to such foolishness?
Mr. Vance,
You’re being much more considerate and understanding of this guy than he probably deserves. I would go for the more direct tactic:
“Dear Mr. Lee Wee Shing,
Piss off, 愤青 C-borg.
Regards,
Ivan”
Seriously, these guys can’t be argued with. They aren’t willing to think and certainly aren’t willing to accept any new ideas which don’t fit with their pre-existing views; they’re walking, talking gramophones with only the barest understanding of logic or independent thought. It’s better to ignore them and focus on those Chinese who show even the slightest willingness to accept new ideas not drilled into them from birth by the CCP, in the hopes that as China becomes more and more open people with this guy’s mentality will go the way of the Red Guards.
First of all, we ain’t fenqing, c-borg & all those sorts of craps that you guys so easily dismiss. We actually have studied, worked & lived for long period of time in the west & we seem to understand every bits & pieces of the western psyches. The first thing that we do each morning is to browse through some of your so-called mainstream papers like N Y Times, Financial Times, Times Mag etc… We consider it an utter insult to label us as CCP-indoctrinated robots, or a by product of CCP propaganda.
It never amazes us just how naive you guys never seem to change over the last hundreds of years! Are we still being reminded about those bad old days when it becomes, somehow strangely, the white man’s burden to spread your allegedly superior civilisational/religious enlightenment to the savages all across your vast empire? Yes, you may have your so-called democracy, human rights, prosperity blah blah… all right (gosh! good luck but just keep it for yourselves; on second thought though, even these were built upon the loots your ancestors who scouted all around the globe), while N Korea may have been failing in many respects due to one reason or another, just what in your benevolent, albeit naive frame of mind that you think it has become your devined duty to interfere so as to relieve them of their misery? History has taught us that foreign meddlings will never solve any problem but will instead execerbate its severity. Do you once again want regime change as what you have done in Afghanistan & Iraq? Are there not any more human sufferings already in these 2 basket cases? Your mere suggestion of the above really arouse our disgust & indignation just like those arse holes like Mia Farrow, Richard Gere etc on issues like Dafur, Zimbabwe, Myanmar etc. Are you so thick as not to have understood these sacred clauses enshrined in the UN Charter like ‘respect for each sovereign state, non interference on each other’s internal affairs’? Yes, you may offer to help them in good faith but dressing them down or condemnation in a superiority manner are absolutely toxic & unwelcomed. N Korea’s political, social system is really none of your or, as a matter of fact, our business. We shall leave it to the local Koreans to decide on their own fate. Anyway, why should the rest of the world hold the same interpretation on issues like human rights, freedom, democracy as what the West would like us to believe? Shouldn’t you guys start to respect the diversity of views, much the same way like eco/bio diversity etc? Do direct your compassions, if you really care, for the poor Koreans through Oxfam, WFP & other bona fide UN relief agencies.
Chinese people’s fixation about the CIA represents an all too mild description of this nest of evil. For the world wide victims of the ruthless schemmings & machinations of this devil, nothing will ever lift our immense hatred other than live skinnings if ever these operatives fall onto our bare hands. Of course, the pepetrators shall never be expected to share the same feeling as the victims in any such case.
No, you are absolutely not restrained from saying your piece here or any where else. We just reserve our right to refute your insinuation of the ‘oppressiveness’ of the N Korean state. Mind you, a great deal of your information on N Korea is false, they are deliberately being misled by your politically-motivated WESTERN MEDIA ( just like many of those shits about China)!!! Even assuming they may be true, then again one must understand the historical context why this has come about.
Leader or not come what may, China will never behave like those Occidental beasts ranging from Spain, Portugal, Netherland, French, British & American rampaging like pirates building their empires in those dark old days.
Dear Mr. Lee Wee Shing,
Piss off, 愤青 C-borg.
Regards,
Ivan
Dear Mr. Lee Wee Shing,
Piss off, 愤青 C-borg.
Regards,
Ivan