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China appears intent on going the whole hog and co-opt Korea¡¯s entire ancient history. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences has published abstracts of research papers on a website that define the era of Gija Chosun (300 B.C. - 194 A.D. or 1126 B.C. - 194 A.D.), Puyo (2 B.C. - 494 A.D.), Koguryo (37 B.C.- 668 A.D.) and Barhae (698 - 926 A.D.) as part of Chinese history.
CASS is the country¡¯s largest research institute under direct control of the Chinese government and has played a leading role in distorting the history of Koguryo through the so-called Northeast Project since 2002. The publication of these papers violates a 2004 agreement between Seoul and Beijing that the Chinese government desist from claiming Koguryo history as its own.
Balhae ¡°was not an independent country but a local government under control of the Tang Dynasty,¡± the introduction to the 18 papers related to the Northeast Project on CASS¡¯s homepage says. ¡°At the time of its establishment, Balhae was a nation of the Chinese Magya tribe.¡± The organization posted three papers on Balhae alone.
When it comes to Gija Chosun, which Korean historians regard as a kind of myth, one paper says, ¡°Gija Chosun was a local government established on the Korean Peninsula by descendents of the Shang-Yin Dynasty of China and was an overseas tributary of the Zhou & Qin Dynasties of China.¡± But it adds unequivocally the kingdom ¡°is where the history of Northeast China on the Korean Peninsula begins.¡±
In an apparent bid to catch critics on the back foot, the introduction says South and North Korea claim Balhae as part of their own history ¡°to serve their own political purpose of claiming territorial rights.¡± In a final flourish, it claims China ¡°never invaded¡± nations on the Korean Peninsula, while it was the Korean realms of Shilla, Baekje, Koryo and Chosun ¡°that expanded their borders to the North and gradually eroded our territory.¡±
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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