Great Wall Estimate Angers South Koreans
Chinas State Bureau of Cultural Relics announced recently that the total length of the ancient Great Wall of China is not 5,300 miles long, as has been claimed, but 13,000 miles.
The Great Wall was never a contiguous barrier, but rather a network of shorter walls built piecemeal by various Chinese dynasties. The most commonly accepted starting point of the wall had been Shanhaiguan, south of what used to be called Manchuria, which could mean that ancient China may not include the area north of the wall, including todays northeast provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Helongjiang and any part of the Korean peninsula.
However, the new Chinese calculations extend the Great Wall well into northeast China to include the ancient Korean states of Goguryeo and Bohai.
South Koreans were outraged recently by Beijings new declaration of the walls length.
At the core of the outrage is Chinas inclusion of wall structures built by Goguryeo and Bohai, whose territories are within Chinas Liaoning, Jilin and Helongjiang, land many Koreans still consider their territory.
All leading newspapers in South Korea, including Chosun Ilbo and Dong-a ilbo, in recent weeks published commentaries with sharp condemnation and criticism of Chinas announcement as a blatant misuse of history to justify future territorial expansion.
Chinas Global Times fired back with an article quoting Lu Chao, a Chinese scholar at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences who said: It is ridiculous to say the Great Wall should not include the wall built by Goguryeo simply because it was built by Korean ancestors.
While South Koreans are fuming over Chinas new claims, the communist North, Chinas regional ally, has remained conspicuously silent on the matter. Most of the disputed territories in this debate directly join North Korean territory.
China's Great Wall just got longer - The Times of India
Inside China: China's one million traitors - Washington Times
Meanwhile, PLA conducts military exercises with North Korean army for crossing Yalu River to defend Pyongyang!
Chinese troops conducted river-crossing drills on Tuesday afternoon near Dandong on the Apnok River which separates China and North Korea. Around 100 Chinese soldiers partook in the exercise using six or seven small boats and around 10 pontoon bridges measuring 20 to 30 m to move troops and equipment across.
Locals said Chinese troops had conducted several such drills before and that exercises using pontoon bridges usually take place in the summer. The Chinese military exercise appears aimed at preparing for a swift entry into North Korea in the event of an emergency there.
The Chosun Ilbo (English Edition): Daily News from Korea - China Conducts River-Crossing Drill at N.Korean Border
