Seoul slams Beijing for its history textbooks full of lies
Seoul (AsiaNews) - Diplomatic disputes continue to stir the waters of East Asia. Following the long territorial saga over islands in the East and the South China Seas involving China, Japan, the two Koreas, Vietnam and the Philippines, Chinese history textbooks have now become an additional bone of contention, this time between South Korea and the People's Republic. For Seoul, Beijing is trying to erase the contribution, not to mention the existence of the Korean people through the centuries.
China has recently issued new textbooks for high schools. Even though it sides with South Korea to persuade Japan to acknowledge its war crimes during World War Two, the two are not on the same wavelength about the pre- and post war history.
Before 2011, Chinese history textbooks usually said that the "Chosun people" had lived on the Korean Peninsula for a long time, but now that has been changed to "humans."
In references to the 1950-53 Korean War, Chinese textbooks state that Chinese troops took part in border skirmishes and fail to mention the division of the Peninsula.
Such differing views of history go back a long way.
Wars notwithstanding, since 2000 Seoul has accused Beijing of distorting history. The breaking point came in 2004 when the Chinese Academy of Science published a series of documents claiming that Korea's ancient kingdoms were in fact part of greater China. Given the situation, the South Korean Foreign Ministry called on China to stop.
Speaking to AsiaNews, a ministry source said that the Chinese "are always trying to discredit their neighbours. It does not matter whether we are friend or foe. They want to write history according to their taste. But that is not right."
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