President Park Geun-hye’s decision to attend China’s military parade this week, commemorating the victory over Japan in World War II, is both puzzling and more than a little unsettling. The guest list includes leaders from 30 countries, although many of them are not heads of state, and most come from small Central Asian or African nations. No major Western country is sending a high ranking leader, and aside from Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Park will be the most prominent spectator at the event. 

Her actions are a clear symbol of support for China and Korea’s growing relationship and a recognition of the Chinese struggle against Japanese aggression in the first half of the 20th century. Undoubtedly, the Chinese deserve more respect for this, especially in the West, where their sacrifices are consistently underrepresented in history textbooks. No one can deny the suffering and struggles of the country’s people and military during decades of fighting, but the parade this week will reflect only a small slice of that reality; it was the Nationalist forces under Chiang Kai-shek that bore the brunt of the conflict for many years, in addition to, and often more than, the Chinese Communist Party. 

President Park’s presence at the military parade will reinforce the CCP’s persistent “selective interpretation” of history, as well as reveal her own, for she will be commemorating the same military that, only five years after Japan’s surrender, fought on the side of North Korea during the Korean War and whose intervention was single-handedly responsible for the U.N.’s inability to unify the peninsula in 1950. By the end of that year, Chinese forces had even succeeded in invading and capturing Seoul, and today, this same military is run by the same regime which still reveres the same leader who ordered that invasion. Yet despite this, the majority of South Koreans still seem to pass off Chinese intervention in the war as unfortunate Cold War geopolitics and identify with the Chinese people as co-victims of Japanese aggression.

China’s support for North Korea did not end with the war, of course, and for the past two decades, the CCP has continued to support the Kim family dynasty, in their hope of maintaining a stable, divided peninsula. Recent provocations by the North have been met with increasing irritation by China, but so far the “abandon North Korea” camp has gained little traction. As time has passed, China’s support for the North has also become an accepted part of reality in South Korea and political differences have not hindered economic interaction.

The result of this has been a new flowering of cooperation between China and South Korea that has produced tangible benefits for both nations. Over the past few years, tourism has been booming. Also, as ties improve and China’s relationship with North Korea continues to sour, China is seen as an increasingly valuable ally in dealing with the North. 

In comparison, South Korea’s relationship with Japan has worsened in recent years, largely because of many Japanese leaders’ “one step forward, two steps backward” method of dealing with and apologizing for Japan’s wartime atrocities, as well as territorial disputes and historical reinterpretations. But China is no less guilty of this. Chinese history textbooks, for example, heavily censored by the CCP, still portray the Korean War as a result of American imperialist aggression, from which the People’s Liberation Army victoriously saved the Korean people. I suspect many in this country would take issue with this notion.

President Park’s attendance at the military parade will also be interpreted as her tacit support of the Chinese military in its current capacity and its status quo-altering behavior in the South China Sea, which has been destabilizing the region and contributing to increasingly vehement territorial disputes with neighboring countries, several of which have declined to send representatives to the parade and will be wary of what message President Park is sending with her attendance.

In short, Korea needs to be close to China. Economic reasons aside, China must be included in discussions about possible contingencies for any sudden changes that could occur in North Korea, as well as what shape a post-North Korea East Asia could take. But this should be done in tandem with Asia’s greater security needs and respect for historical realities. At a time when nearly the entire region is wary of China’s growing military assertions and territorial disputes are becoming increasingly violent, for the president to attend an event honoring the Chinese Communist Party military is not only ironic, but also not particularly helpful.

By Ben Forney

Ben Forney studies at the Seoul National University Graduate School of International Studies. — Ed.