Northeast Project of the Chinese Academy of Social Science

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The Northeast Project (Simplified Chinese: 东北工程; Traditional Chinese: 東北工程), which is short for the Northeast Borderland History and the Chain of Events Research Project (Simplified Chinese: 东北边疆历史与现状系列研究工程; Traditional Chinese: 東北邊疆歷史與現狀系列研究工程), is a 20-billion-yuan (2.4 billion US dollars) project launched by the Chinese government in 2002 and finished in 2006, conducted by the Chinese Academy of Social Science. This project applies Zhonghua Minzu ideology to ancient ethnic groups, states and history of the region of Manchuria and northern Korea. Under the Zhonghua Minzu ideology, it is assumed that there was a greater Chinese state in the ancient past. Accordingly, any pre-modern people or states that occupied any part of what is now the People's Republic of China are defined as having been part of that greater Chinese state. Similar projects have been conducted on Tibet and Turkestan, which have been named Southwest Project and Northwest Project, respectively.

Due to its claims on Gojoseon, Goguryeo and Balhae, the project sparked disputes with Korea. In 2004, this dispute threatened to lead to diplomatic disputes between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of Korea, although all governments involved seem to exhibit no desire to see the issue damage relations.^[1]

1 Background
2 Goguryeo Controversy
3 Chinese History Textbook
4 Criticisms
5 Political motives
6 Ramifications
7 See also
8 Notes
9 References
10 External links

[edit] Background

Conventionally, Goguryeo has been viewed as a Korean state, more specifically as one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea. Traditional Chinese histories have also identified Goguryeo with Goryeo, a Korean dynasty that took its name from Goguryeo and ruled Korea for centuries.

Starting from the 1980s when the PRC constitution was amended to redefine the People's Republic of China as a "unitary multinational state built up jointly by the people of all its nationalities", some Chinese historians began to re-identify Goguryeo, especially the first half of Goguryeo's history before it moved its capital to the Korean peninsula, as part of the regional history of China rather than of Korea. This historical revisionism was intensified in the 1990s when a head historian of a North Korean delegation accused Chinese historians of conceiving of ancient China in terms of the territorial bounds of the modern Chinese state, which, he claimed, is a view unsupported by historical evidence. More recently in 2002, this effort has been taken up by the PRC government in the form of the Northeast Project, which eventually made its way to the South Korean press.

[edit] Goguryeo Controversy

The claims on Goguryeo made on by the project include:

that Goguryeo was established in Manchuria, now a part of China
that Goguryeo actively sought a tributary relationship with successive Chinese empires^[2], and was thus a provincial state of the Chinese empire.
that after the end of Goguryeo, its descendants were largely assimilated into the Han Chinese
that the Goryeo Dynasty and hence, the Korean nation, descends from Samhan and Silla, not Goguryeo; and that Goryeo appropriated the name from Goguryeo when in fact the two were established by different ethnicities.
that Goguryeo's defiance of Tang was an internal rebellion and the war between the two states was a civil war.

By contrast, Korean historians dispute the legitimacy of the Northeast Project, generally making these arguments:^[3]

A nation that once controlled large areas of present day China does not mean it is ethnically Chinese.
Goguryeo's second capital was located at Pyongyang, North Korea. Before the capital city was moved, Goguryeo territory comprised what is today North Korea and parts of Manchuria.
Goguryeo lasted about 900 years while no Chinese state concurrent with Goguryeo's rule lasted for more than 400. If Goguryeo was indeed Chinese, this would not be possible.
The claim following the fall of Goguryeo only a few hundred thousand of its estimated 4 million inhabitants were taken into captivity by China and not the whole population. The Goguryeo state continued with Balhae, which considered itself as the successor of Goguryeo; when Balhae was destroyed, its population dissipated into the Korean dynasty of Goryeo. Hence, Silla was not the sole source of the modern Korean nation.
Goguryeo defeated the Sui and Tang Dynasties of China several times before finally being destroyed by a Tang and Silla alliance.
The claim that only the present South Korean Jeolla and Kyongsang regions were descendants of Samhan, where is south of Geum River. There are more Koreans descended from inhabitants from outside Samhan and Silla, i.e., north of Geum River. North Koreans are descendants of Goguryeo, and they share the same languange and culture with South Koreans.

[edit] Chinese History Textbook

Previously, Goguryeo has been written in Chinese history textbooks as a Korean kingdom. However, in a new version first printed in 1997, Goguryeo has been excluded from Korean history and was rewritten as a provincial government of ethnic minorities of Chinese dynasties.^[4]

[edit] Criticisms

The PRC's revision of Goguryeo history, in an attempt to recharacterize it as a Chinese provincial state rather than an independent Korean kingdom, has received international criticism for making a flawed and politically motivated rewriting of history. Such criticisms came from numerous scholars from other countries such as the United States, Russia, Mongolia, and Australia,^[5] including prominent Goguryeo experts such as Mark Byington of Harvard University Korea Institute,^[6] and R. Sh. Djarylgashinova of Russian Academy of Science Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography.^[7]

The Northeast Project is not universally accepted in the PRC. In 2006, a senior scholar from Peking University affirmed Goguryeo as a part of Korean history and denied Chinese connections.^[8] He has expressed disagreement with the CASS institute, the PRC government institution running the Northeast Project, and indirectly criticized the project on behalf of the Peking University Department of History.

[edit] Political motives

Some historians and political analysts believe Northeast Project is a defensive move by China to strengthen its claim on current territory and prepare for possible land disputes with a unified Korea, and also promote national unity upon rising inter-ethnic tensions.^[9] On the other hand, there are also other historians and political analysts who believe the Northeast Project to be an attempt to establish historical justification for possible Chinese takeover of North Korea or political intervention on North Korea upon its collapse.^[10]^[11] The Chinese government fears that if North and South Korea unite, the 2 million ethnic Koreans living in Manchuria will secede from China and reclaim Goguryeo's territory. [1]

[edit] Ramifications

The Northeast Project quickly caught the attention of the Korean press and caused a massive public outrage in Korea. In response, China blocked access to Chinese language websites protesting China's claims on Goguryeo. It is also suspected that the Chinese government was responsible for the shutdown of a popular Korean Chinese community website, where there was active criticism against the Chinese government's claims on Goguryeo.^[12]

Coupled with various provocations, such as sending threats to Korean parlimentary members, the Goguryeo controversy generated an anti-Chinese sentiment that reversed the anti-US and pro-China atmosphere in Korea along with a possible shift in Korea's security strategy.^[13] On a 2006 poll commissioned by the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, a state-run think tank in Korea, South Koreans chose China as the greatest security threat in 10 years.^[14]