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The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, which is under the direct jurisdiction of the Chinese government, asserts that the history of not only the ancient Korean kingdom of Koguryo but also of Gija-Chosun, Puyo and Barhae all belong to Chinese history, and so do their territories. An institute in the academy that has taken the lead in distorting Koguryo history through the so-called Northeast Project since 2002, recently published 18 abstracts of papers. One of them asserts that it was descendants of the Shang-Yin Dynasty of China who founded Gija-Chosun on the Korean Peninsula. Gija-Chosun gave rise to the history of Koguryo, and Barhae ¡°marks the beginning of China's northeast history on the Korean Peninsula.¡± The academy seems to be claiming pre-emptive rights to North Korea by asserting that ancient China's territories "extended to the Han River valley on the Korean Peninsula."
The CASS also asserts that the 668 A.D. attack by the Shilla-Tang allied forces on Koguryo was "a unification war in which Tang conquered Koguryo." The logic is the same as the Northeast Project¡¯s, which described Koguryo as a provincial Tang government in 2004. Official media like the People's Daily and Xinhua News Agency made a great deal of this.
Now China insists that even Barhae is its own. CASS says Barhae ¡°was not an independent country but a local government under control of the Tang Dynasty¡± and is ¡°inseparable from Chinese history.¡± In 1980, when it tried to co-opt annexed Tibet and the Uyghur region into its history, China also said they were ¡°inseparable¡± from it. It has claimed even Puyo, the root of Koguryo and Baekje, with the Liaoning Provincial Museum in Shenyang saying Puyo was among the minorities ¡°that founded a state in our northeast."
But Seoul is as calm as if it was all someone else¡¯s business. The Office for Government Policy Coordination under the Prime Minister¡®s Office said in information to the National Assembly, "As of August 2006, no additional distortion of history has been made by the Chinese central government, party, administration and official media." The Foreign Ministry in a white paper published in July said, "The South Korean and Chinese governments attempted to resolve the Koguryo history issue satisfactorily." Asked if the CASS papers now can be regarded as the position of the Chinese government, a Foreign Ministry official would neither confirm nor deny it. If the Northeast Project, carried out with the participation of senior Chinese officials and with a national budget, doesn't constitute the Beijing¡¯s official position, what does?
Kim Jeong-bae, the former chairman of the Koguryo Research Foundation, said, ¡°China was prudent about history issues while the Kogoryo Research Foundation existed, but I'm concerned that the offensive came as soon as the foundation was dissolved.¡± The foundation, established by the government to counter the Northeast Project the year before last, was dissolved and absorbed into the Northeast Asia History Foundation last month. ¡°The Koguryo history materials we prepared could not be distributed to students because of objections by the Foreign Ministry, and the education minister and vice minister declined to listen to our stories about the foundation's projects for even five or 10 minutes. How could they be so indifferent to a national project?¡± Kim added. Im Hyo-jae, a professor emeritus at Seoul National University, accuses the government of trying to sweep the matter under the carpet for fear of stirring conflict with China.
But the CASS papers breach a diplomatic promise China made our government in August 2004 not to distort history in a manner that hurts Seoul-Beijing relations. But the president or foreign minister have yet to make a protest. Why is a government that has no problems shaking our alliance with the U.S. to the roots being so timid? ¡°Independence!¡± it hollers, quite impotent to safeguard even our essential history.
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