China Protecting its Teeth in 1950 Korea – Part 6/9

February 27, 2011

There are two sides to every story and as I said in Part 5, there are two reasons for the Korean War.

After more than a century of rebellions, wars, and civil war, China was tired of being bullied by Western Imperial powers and Japan. It wasn’t about to make the same mistakes the Qing Dynasty and the Nationalists had made.

After all, the Japanese had invaded Manchuria through Korea. Why not the US?

Since UN forces were driven back from the Chinese border, we will never know if China’s fears were justified. Would the South Korean army (ROK) have invaded Manchuria taking the UN forces with them?

After all, it was the ROK army that earlier led the charge into North Korea while the UN held back waiting for the politicians thousands of miles away to decide what to do.

After losing South Korea’s capital of Seoul to China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the UN’s troops found themselves 35 miles south of the city well below the Han River.

This segment introduces the first use of Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals (MASH), which helped keep wounded UN and US troops alive.

MASH units were first used in Korea. They were life saving systems that operated close to the front lines and could quickly relocate.

Each unit was equipped with a helicopter fleet for air rescue, paramedics and cutting-edge medical technology.

The MASH units saved 25% more wounded than in World War II.

By January 1951, the PLA’s supply lines were overextended, which may explain the mystery behind why the Chinese forces started to moved north instead of south about this time.

Since the Chinese were retreating, General Ridgway decided to launch a full-scale offensive called Operation Thunderbolt.

By February, UN troops were overlooking Seoul from across the Han River.

With February came bad weather that turned the earth to mud making it difficult to move and limiting the PLA’s ability to receive much needed supplies to feed and arm their troops. The Chinese were starving.

However, the UN had the US Air force’s huge air transport fleet to deliver food. The winds of war had shifted again and this time it was the PLA that was suffering.

Return to China Protecting its Teeth in 1950 Korea – Part 5

______________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

1 Comment | America, capitalism, China, Chinese history, Communism, military | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

The Cause of China’s Pollution

February 26, 2011

Before criticizing and blaming China for polluting the environment, learn about the history that caused the pollution first.

The first Industrial Revolution took place in England after James Watt developed the coal/wood burning steam engine in the late 18th century. This was beginning of air and water pollution.

The second Industrial Revolution (1820-1870) helped the economic development of the United States. Then industrialization increased between 1870 and 1914.

Pollution from industries grew to epidemic proportions after 1945. In fact, the type of pollution changed significantly when industries in America and Europe began manufacturing and using synthetic materials such as plastics and DDT.

These materials are not only toxic; they accumulated in the environment and were not biodegradable. This increased rates of cancers, physical birth defects, and mental retardation.

Due to an increase in world trade after World War II and moving a significant percentage of the world’s manufacturing to Japan, then China after Mao died, the pollution created using these synthetic materials increased and pollution reached a global scale.

Most of the products manufactured in China were sold around the globe by multinational corporations such as Wal-Mart. If you buy products made in China, you are partly responsible for the pollution there. The odds are that the computer I’m using was made or assembled in China. Darn!


June 2007 – the US still has more cars on the road and buys much of what China manufactures for US companies.

Another factor was pressure from the people of China on their government to improve the standard of living for 1.3 billion people. India faced the same challenges.

The lifestyle changes taking place in China and India parallel the changes that already took place in America, Britain and Europe more than a century earlier.

In the 1960s, about 60% of Chinese labor worked in agriculture. That figure remained about the same throughout the 1960s into early 1990s. Then by the late 1990s, the farm force in rural China fell to about thirty percent.

In comparison, in 1870, 53% of US labor worked in agriculture. Today, farm labor in the US makes up 3% of workforce. The rest live in towns and cities with a middle-class demanding more synthetic products to feed the consumer lifestyle.

Discover The One Party Advantage

______________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, here is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

 

Note: This post first appeared on iLook China February 7, 2010 as post # 31. This revised version reappears as post # 1086.

2 Comments | America, business, China, Chinese middle class, economy, environment | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

China Protecting its Teeth in 1950 Korea – Part 5/9

February 26, 2011

During war, it is the job of a nation’s media to stir up nationalism and support the troops. When this happens, often the enemy is demonized on both sides, which stirs paranoia and hate, but the truth is more complicated.

Considering China’s history since the First Opium War in the early 19th century to 1949 (a century of war, rebellions and civil war), when UN forces neared China’s border, China’s leaders feared an invasion and reacted.

It’s possible if the UN had not moved beyond the Chongchon River and allowed North Korea’s communist government to survive in the area between that river and the Yalu River, China might not have attacked. It also didn’t help that the US moved forward to attack the Chinese positions after both sides had retreated after China’s first assault.

Meanwhile, at the Chosin Reservoir, the troops of the US 10 Corps celebrated Thanksgiving and dealt with the cold and harsh conditions. An offensive was planned for November 27. Having heard what was happening to the UN forces to the West, the Marines got ready for the worst possible combat situation. The objective of the operation was to take the city of Kanggye where the North Korean government had fled.

The offensive stalled against stiff Chinese resistance and the 10th Corps fell back. Then the Chinese attacked with six divisions.

Soon the 10th Corps was surrounded. The commanding General Oliver P. Smith said, “Gentlemen, we are not retreating. We are merely attacking in another direction.”

The situation was dire. On December 1, elements of the 10th Corps moved from the Chosin taking the wounded with them. The Chinese attacked from all sides.

After thirteen days of fighting while moving toward the ocean and the waiting US Navy, the first of the 10th Corps reached safety.

McArthur wasn’t near the combat as the UN forces retreated from North Korea with great losses. To make matters worse, the UN field commander General Walker was killed in a jeep accident.

Walker was replaced with General Matthew B. Ridgway. His levelheaded wisdom and experience brought a vital balance to the battlefield. He quickly discovered that the moral and confidence of UN troops was poor.

Ridgway attempted to hold the line at Seoul but on January 3, 1951, Seoul fell for a second time.

Return to China Protecting its Teeth in 1950 Korea – Part 4

______________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

Leave a Comment » | America, China, Chinese history, history, military | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Three Heads Talking of China

February 25, 2011

On April 24, 2010, I attended a panel at the 2010 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.

The topic was “China: The Next Superpower?” The experts were Richard Baum, author of China Watcher: Confessions of a Peking Tom; Zachary Karabell, Superfusion, and Jeffrey Wasserstrom, China in the 21st Century.


Jeffrey Wasserstrom

Baum is an expert on politics; Karabell on money/economics, and Wasserstrom on history.

Wasserstrom said that China is not the older country. The PRC was sixty-years old while the United States was more than two hundred.

Both the Communist Civil War and the American Revolution rejected colonialism then both expanded into other countries and territories to become world powers.


Richard Baum

Baum added that the cultural differences are significant starting with Confucianism, which expresses Collective Rights instead of individual rights as in America.

Karabell mentioned that there was a lot of misunderstanding and ignorance between the United States and China.


Zachary Karabell

Many in the US believe China is unfair in world trade and that Americans lose jobs because of that.

However, China’s trade with the world is about even between exports and imports and what China buys from the United States keeps many Americans working.

______________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

 

Note: This post first appeared on iLook China April 30, 2010 as post # 278. This revised version reappears as post # 1084.

3 Comments | China, cultural differences, economy | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

China Protecting its Teeth in 1950 Korea – Part 4/9

February 25, 2011

US commanders heard rumors that Communist China was moving troops close to the Chinese side of the Yalu River with North Korea.

China’s leaders did not like the US army so close to China. They feared that the US might cross into Manchuria as the Japanese had before launching World War II.

Another factor to consider was that the US supported Communist China’s enemy, Chiang Kai-shek and his Nationalist Army (KMT) on Taiwan.

The Communists had fought a Civil War with the Nationalists from 1925 to 1949 before winning and America had provided the modern weapons the KMT had used.

American intelligence reports estimated that about 450 thousand Chinese troops might be in the hills north of the Yalu River.

As the UN army moved north, South Korea recovered from the destruction caused by the North Korean invasion.

After centuries of domination by the Mongols, Manchu, Chinese, Russians and Japanese, the South Koreans wanted to govern themselves.

However, China had ruled over Korea off and on for more than a thousand years, and the Chinese culture had a heavy influence on the Koreans. South Korea, on the other hand, did not want a Communist government.

Meanwhile, without much opposition, UN forces continued to advance toward Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea.

On October 24, 1950, General McArthur ordered his troops to march to the Yalu River and occupy all Korea. This caused the Chinese to attack on October 25.

Surprised, the UN troops took heavy casualties then quickly retreated south, but many died.

General Walker ordered the UN army to fall back to the Chongchon River. Once the UN forces pulled back, the Chinese stopped fighting and returned to the hills to see what the UN’s next move would be.

After several weeks of calm, General McArthur ordered another advance toward the Yalu River and fired on the Chinese positions, which caused the Chinese to attack again on November 25.

Then the Chinese found a gap between the UN forces and split the UN defensive line sending the UN army in full retreat just at the North Korean winter arrived.

As the UN army retreated south, the US 10th Corps dug in around the Chosin Reservoir, which was high in North Korea’s mountains. The brutal winter temperature there was as low as forty below zero.

Return to China Protecting its Teeth in 1950 Korea – Part 3

______________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

Leave a Comment » | America, capitalism, China, Chinese history, Communism, cultural differences, history, military | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »