China-US relations: Beijing’s Korean war propaganda ‘out of date’, observers say

Name: Xi Jinping says ‘Chinese people will not bend’ in Korean war anniversary speech
Uploaded: 2020-10-23T23:00:07.000Z
Duration: 1 min 16 s
Description: Xi Jinping says ‘Chinese people will not bend’ in Korean war anniversary speech

China’s should not ‘rid itself of earlier humiliations, but … integrate with international system and bear more responsibility as a superpower’, academic says

Using the Korean war as an analogy for current tensions serves only to ‘perpetuate a cold war mentality’, analyst says

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Chinese state media has been awash with programmes about the nation’s victories during the Korean war. Photo: Xinhua

Minnie Chan

Published: 7:00am, 24 Oct 2020Updated: 10:46am, 26 Oct 2020

The propaganda being issued by the Chinese Communist Party on the 70th anniversary of the start of the Korean war – the country’s only armed conflict with the United States – no longer fits its status as a global power, observers say.

In recent days, state media has been awash with nationalistic programmes about China’s victories in the face of “American oppression” during the 1950-53 conflict.

A documentary aired by state broadcaster CCTV described it as a “war to resist America and aid Korea”.

It was also a defensive move to “protect the motherland” after the US deployed naval forces to the Taiwan Strait two days after the war started.

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Xi Jinping says ‘Chinese people will not bend’ in Korean war anniversary speech

But experts say even a domestic audience is becoming less likely to swallow such a one-sided message.