From: cw@orion.uucp (C.W. Chung)
Subject: Re: What about China done to Korea?
Organization: Objectivity Inc.
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 92 19:05:03 GMT

    >> junglee@gandalf.rutgers.edu (Jung S. Lee) writes:
    >> >My question:
    >> >	Does it make sense to get an apology from someone while you
    >> >owe someone else an apology? China had done so many war crimes, more
    >> >than Japan did, and Korea has never gotten any apology from China, either
    >> >Main China or Taiwan.  If China feels that the apology for what Japan
    >> >had done to China during WW II is a must, China should feel obligated
    >> >to what she had done to Korea in the long history between China and Korea.
    >> >I am not saying that Japan should not apologize to the Chinese who
    >> >suffered from all those shameful crimes. But China cannot ignore the
    >> >need of an apology to Korea either.

May be we could pick up this thread after the discussion of Apology from
Japan is over.  I really don't want to dilute the attention of that issue,
but this is an important point by itself: how do Chinese
textbooks (Mainland, HK, Taiwan) cover the wars/conflicts/relationships 
with its neighbors like Korea, Vietnam, India.  Equally important, I would 
like to know the perspectives from the Koreans, Vietnamese, India and others.

So perhaps Jung S. Lee could inform us the evidence that the 
"China had done so many war crimes, more than Japan did".  

My recollection from reading the book (Outline of Chinese history) by
Pak Yeung (or Bo Yang - the one who wrote The Ugly Chinese), is that
of all neighbor countries, the Chinese and the Koreans had enjoyed an
especially close relationship.  The only time that I recalled did
China had aggression over Korea was the Tsui dynasty (~500 A.D.?).
The military aggression was a failure, and leads directly to the
overthrow of the Tsui (forgive my Cantonese spelling) dynasty and 
the formation of Tang dynasty.

Thereafter, for the next 1500 years or so, there are several military
excursion to Korea, much of the excursions were at the request of 
Korean King/government for helping them to either to defend against 
other aggressors (usually Japanese), or to aid a fraction against 
another in a civil war.  In some case, China felt obliged to help
because Korea was a nominal protectorate.  In some case, it is also
to China's self interest to help Korea to defend herself so that 
Korea would not become a beach-head for further aggression against China.

The last time that China was fighting in Korea was of course during the
Korean War.  China has sent million of soldiers to help the N. Korea 
fighting against the Americans when the Americans begun bombarding
the Korea/Chinese border, and pushing N. Korea to the brink of collapse.
Chinese casualty was *extremely* heavy, probably in hundreds of thousands
(if not million).  Remember, the blood was shed on behalf of the Koreans,
and at the end of the war, China did not seek even an inch of land
from Korea.

(With hindsight, one could argue that China sometimes helped the wrong 
side during the wars, depending on which side of the fence you are on. 
That is a question probably as difficult as: whether American involvement
in Vietnam had helped Vietnam or not.)

That is my impression of the long history between Korea and China.
I welcome discussion, data and information on this subject.  
 -cw-
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C.W.Chung       Objectivity Inc.      Object-Oriented DBMS  Tel: 415/688-8023
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