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China hails Korean war armistice as ‘victory for peace’ as high-level team arrives in Pyongyang to mark 1953 event
- Chinese delegation led by Politburo member Li Hongzhong and Russian team headed by defence chief Sergey Shoigu are in North Korea for the occasion
- Choice of lower-ranked official than that for North Korea’s 70th anniversary celebrations suggests China might want to downplay alliance, analyst says
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China called for peace, opposition to hegemony and “bridging differences through dialogue”, as it joined North Korea in marking the 70th anniversary of the Korean war ceasefire.
Chinese state media released a series of articles commemorating the 1950-53 war as a high-level delegation from Beijing arrived in Pyongyang on Wednesday to take part in related events, in the first post-pandemic trip to North Korea by Chinese officials.
The delegation is being led by Li Hongzhong, member of the Politburo and vice-chairman of the standing committee of China’s top legislature, the National People’s Congress, both centres of power for the ruling Communist Party.
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A Russian delegation led by Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu arrived in Pyongyang earlier to join in the celebrations, as North Korea looks to strengthen ties with both key partners amid heightened military activity in the region by the United States and its allies.
In 2018, Xi sent his right-hand man Li Zhanshu, then NPC Standing Committee chairman and the third-ranking official in the Politburo Standing Committee, the party’s top decision-making body, to attend North Korea’s 70th anniversary celebrations.
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