Today is the 70th anniversary of the entry of the PLA into the Korean War, a war known in China as the “War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea”. China also made a big deal of the 60th anniversary in 2010, but not like this year, when the commemorations come amidst the sharp, structural deterioration in the US-China relationship.

China entered the war just a year after the founding of the PRC, when it was poor and relatively weak, and yet it pushed the US-led UN forces back below the 38th parallel and then fought them to a bloody standstill. That victory, against all odds, is incredibly powerful for Xi and the Party in the face of the increasingly difficult relationship with the US.

Today’s Global Times, which I find can be interesting when it cites PRC scholars, sums it up well in China commemorates war against US aggression in Korea - Global Times:

In recent years, especially in 2020, the US has increased its strategic pressures, stigmatizations and provocations to China from diffe…