BEIJING: China on Friday held an event to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Chinese People’s Volunteers (CPV) army entering the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea (1950-1953).
Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), delivered a speech at the event, urging the nation to remember history, carry forward the spirit of the CPV and advance socialism with new characteristics.
Speaking at the event, the Chinese president stressed that the great victory of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea will forever be engraved in the history of the Chinese nation and the history of peace, development and progress of mankind.
Xi hailed the historic significance of the War to Resist U.S. aggression and Aid Korea, noting the “great war” defied the invasion and expansion of imperialism and safeguarded the security of New China.
The war also safeguarded the peaceful life of the Chinese people, stabilized the situation in the Korean Peninsula and upheld peace in Asia and the world, he said.
Eight months after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the Korean War broke out in June 1950. The flames of war soon reached the Yalu River, the China-DPRK border river, and wreaked havoc in Dandong City, in northeast China’s Liaoning Province, with buildings bombed and civilians killed in U.S. air strikes.
It was a time when New China had its armed forces poorly equipped, without combat-able air and navy forces. However, at the request of the DPRK, Chinese People’s Volunteers (CPV) army entered the Korean Peninsula in October 1950 to aid the DPRK in a three-year fight until a truce was reached in 1953.
President Xi said the victory is a declaration that the Chinese have stood firm in the East, adding that the victory laid a foundation for New China’s status in Asian and international affairs.
More than 197,000 CPV officers and soldiers sacrificed their lives in the war.
–The Daily Mail-CGTN exchange item
