October 9, 2021

"The film, sponsored by the [Chinese] government, depicts an against-all-odds American defeat in a battle known in the United States as the Battle of Chosin Reservoir."

"Mr. Luo’s crime was to question the legal justification of China’s intervention when North Korea’s troops were on the verge of defeat after invading the South. 'Half a century later, few Chinese people have reflected on the justifiability of the war,' he wrote on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, before referring specifically to a doomed Chinese military unit featured in the film 'that did not doubt the "wise decision" of the top.'"

Statement from the People’s Liberation Army: "Some individuals still try to completely deny the War of Resistance against the United States and Aid Korea, question the justice of sending troops, and try to erase the great victory. No matter how they distort, obliterate, falsify, tease and denigrate the facts, history is written in the hearts of the people.'"

Meanwhile in Norway: "Journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitri Muratov are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize" (NYT): "Seeking to bolster press freedoms as journalists find themselves under increasing pressure from authoritarian governments and other hostile forces, the Norwegian Nobel Committee on Friday awarded the Peace Prize to two journalists... Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitri A. Muratov of Russia, were recognized for 'their courageous fight for freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.' 'They are representatives of all journalists who stand up for this ideal in a world in which democracy and freedom of the press face increasingly adverse conditions'....'The fight against the media is not a fight against the media,' Mr. Muratov said in a radio interview on Friday. 'It is a fight against the people.'"

33 comments:

rehajm said...

'their courageous fight for freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.'

Now do Twitter.

Temujin said...

"The fight against the media is not a fight against the media,' Mr. Muratov said in a radio interview on Friday. 'It is a fight against the people."

Possibly. But not here in North America. In NA, the media are the mouthpiece of governments who's opinion of 'the people' is that they'd rather have them replaced.

Lyle said...

Even the Nobel Prize is scared of China... or just has been paid off.

Unknown said...

Lets not talk about how free speech is repressed in the US using "misinformation" as the rationale

gilbar said...

against all odds American defeat? huh?
As Gen Puller said:
We’ve been looking for the enemy for some time now. We’ve finally found him. We’re surrounded. That simplifies things.

Unknown said...

Lets not talk about how free speech in the US is suppressed using "misinformation" as the rationale

BUMBLE BEE said...

I Heard her say on NPR this morning that social media has to be a gatekeeper against "The Sludge". Remember the Free Speech Movement? Nah!. Hell, I'm so old, I remember when even the ACLU supported free speech. Yeah, back when Robert Byrd was mentoring Joe Biden. Democrats loved masks back then too!

BUMBLE BEE said...

Chesty! Nuff Said.

Drago said...

A film sponsored by the ChiCom government?

Well, the ChiCom's had Hollywood/democraticals/LLR-lefties at "hello".....

rcocean said...

Well, at least he didn't question the Holocaust.

rcocean said...

BTW, I was interested in seeing the movie, but that was before I saw the Trailer. Looks like you standard CGI war movie with lots of explosions and bodies flying through the air. Too bad. Because even though the PLA was fighting for the worst cause ever, their fighing at Chosin was probably one of the best example of fighting courage and skill in the 20th Century. Not only did they march deep into Korea without being spotted, they almost destroyed the UN forces with nothing more than mortars, Machine Guns, and a few pieces of light artillery. No tanks, few trucks, no air cover. Its quite remarkable.

mdg said...

Free speech? WTF is that?

I denounce myself.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

“they almost destroyed the UN forces with nothing more than mortars, Machine Guns, and a few pieces of light artillery.”

And massive human-wave attacks resulting in massive Chinese casualties that haven’t been acknowledged by China to this day. Like many stereotypes, the “no respect for human life” one wasn’t just pulled out of someone’s ass.

At least in the West we eventually get around to discussing our fuck-ups and hypocrisies.

Yancey Ward said...

Wow, Jonathan Chait didn't win for his heroic resistance against Trump?

chuck said...

And massive human-wave attacks resulting in massive Chinese casualties

IIRC, something like four Chinese divisions were savaged.

GatorNavy said...

The Nobel’s jumped the shark a long, long time ago. They are essentially meaningless, like an Emmy or Oscar.

Václav Patrik Šulik said...

Imagine James O'Keefe, Andy Ngo & Glenn Greenwald getting a Nobel Peace Prize.

YoungHegelian said...

The Chinese intervention in North Korea was great for the Chinese leadership, since it catapulted the CCP into prominence among the "socialist nations". The Chinese were seen as the new world leader in standing tall against capitalist imperialism, as opposed to the now exhausted Soviet Union.

But for the Chinese people, it was a disaster. As mentioned above, to this day, the Chinese don't know the number of their casualties. They accept American estimates as being about as good as anything they can produce. Suffice to say, that after the Americans fell back into defensible positions after the retreat from Chosin, American artillery and air power, the Korean winter, and malnutrition exacted a terrible toll on the PLA in Korea.

The Chinese intervention in Korea also essentially bankrupted the PRC, and the social disruption of the war set the stage for the CCP's greatest horror against the Chinese people, the Great Leap Forward (started in 1958).

William said...

I read the Jung Chang bio of Mao. According to her, Mao used those human wave attacks as way to eliminate units suspected of loyalty to Chiang. Win- win for Mao. The human wave attacks gained some ground and huge losses were inflicted on people whose loyalties were suspect. There were blockade squadrons located just behind the human wave units. Those units had the choice of probable death by the American forces or certain death by the blockading squadrons. Trotsky used such tactics during the Russian civil war. He was hailed as a military genius.....I don't think the Chinese or Russian people will ever know the truth about Lenin, Stalin and Mao. The French are barely aware of many of Napoleon's great crimes. Here in America, researchers are hard at work trying to find out if Washington ever had sex with an enslaved woman. If they can establish such proof, it will prove that America is a mistake.

Narr said...

The FEAF strategic bombing of North Korea is THE unknown story of the police action. The Nork infrastructure was almost entirely destroyed, and the number of civilians killed was enormous.

That they don't much trust or like us is no surprise.

OTOH, the Korean War put the Japanese economy back on its feet, so there's that.

Readering said...

These terrible Chinese casualties in 1950 came after the terrible casualties of the Japanese invasion and the civil war, between 1937 and 1949.

mikee said...

I strongly recommend the historical fiction of WEB Griffin about the war in Korea. "Under Fire" and "The Captains" are two books out of two series of books worth reading in their entirety.

Much like Vietnam was a US "defeat" in 1975 - after over 10 years of holding a defensive line without loss of an inch of territory - the US retreat from the Yalu was a "defeat" wherein the Army and Marines were meant to be killed off, but instead only lost territory to an overwhelmingly numerically superior force. The US forces maintained their defenses under incredibly difficult conditions and succeeded in surviving the Chinese offensive.

The goal of the Chinese was to destroy the American troops utterly, and they failed to do so. China is asshole.

Michael K said...

I treated a retired Marine officer for a very bad cancer of the stomach when I was still in practice. He needed a total gastrectomy and his prognosis was poor. After I explained the surgery and the prognosis, he said "I walked out of the Chosin Reservoir and I can handle this." I retired 5 years later and he was still free of recurrence.

hombre said...

It’s past time for American corporate journolistas to cease fighting the truth and “the people.”

Nancy Reyes said...

Ressa's news site is funded by outsiders like Omidyar, which is illegal here in the Philippines, and undermines traditional independent news sites.

https://www.techinasia.com/rappler-funding-omidyar-network#!

The Philippines was in danger of becoming a narco state before Duterte took over, and most people support his war on drugs and corruption because we are safer. (four elders in our neighborhood were killed by robbers in home invasions, but hey they don't count)

And the news feed on her is about the many brave reporters who were killed (by politicians or businessmen or by the NPA/Islamicist insurgencies). But this has been going on long before Duterte.
http://www.quezon.ph/2009/11/25/mass-murder-in-maguindanao/

tim in vermont said...

So at the time when the United States has been decapitated by dementia, the ChiComs are banging the war drums with overflights of Taiwan airspace and war movies.

tim in vermont said...

"I read the Jung Chang bio of Mao. According to her, Mao used those human wave attacks as way to eliminate units suspected of loyalty to Chiang. Win- win for Mao."

Same as the Red Army held back and let the Nazis and the Poles fight. Since the communists had every intention of killing any Pole with the backbone to fight for Poland, why not let the Nazis do some of the work?

gilbar said...

Narr said...
The FEAF strategic bombing of North Korea... is THE unknown story of the police action. The Nork infrastructure was almost entirely destroyed, and the number of civilians killed was enormous.


The way i heard it told;
The Air Force didn't leave one brick standing on another, all knocked down.
An exaggeration, of course; but not too much of one.
North Korea WAS the industrial part of the peninsula; Not after the Air Force got done with them

Narayanan said...

tim in vermont said...
"I read the Jung Chang bio of Mao. According to her, Mao used those human wave attacks as way to eliminate units suspected of loyalty to Chiang. Win- win for Mao."

Same as the Red Army held back and let the Nazis and the Poles fight. Since the communists had every intention of killing any Pole with the backbone to fight for Poland, why not let the Nazis do some of the work?
----------------
describes very well the political strategy being carried out against Trump supporters fighting for America by D and R and media - ?which chapter of Sun Tzu presents this lesson?

rcocean said...

"Human Wave attacks"

LOL. It reminds me of the old joke "How Chinese to a Horde"?

Go read about the Chosin Reservoir. There were no "Human waves". The intertubes are amazing. is there any reason to talk about real truthful history? All you ever get is macho goobers trying to show they're smarter than the average bear, or light-switch minds who think if you don't say X, you mean A. And if you say Z, you must mean B.

Dumbos.

Narayanan said...

mikee said...
...the US retreat from the Yalu was a "defeat" wherein the Army and Marines were meant to be killed off, but instead only lost territory to an overwhelmingly numerically superior force. The US forces maintained their defenses under incredibly difficult conditions and succeeded in surviving the Chinese offensive.

The goal of the Chinese was to destroy the American troops utterly, and they failed to do so. China is asshole.
---------
educate me :
... wherein the Army and Marines were meant to be killed off >>> meant by whom? US/UN/Mao? are all assholes?

Josephbleau said...

The real problem, I have been told, is that Gen Almond overextended himself in two disconnected thrusts to the Yalu due to the expectations of MacArthur. These unprotected assaults were vulnerable but succeeded. The chicoms had to attack because the USA was camping on the Yalu, but weak. If the US forces had slowly moved north with power after the Inchon landing it would have been different. MacArthur needed instant gratification, he had the same problem in WWII New Guinea.

tim maguire said...

history is written in the hearts of the people.'"

No, that’s where propaganda is written.

....'The fight against the media...is a fight against the people.'"

Journalists do have a high opinion of themselves, don’t they? I’d like to think they’re talking specifically about journalists who cover wars and authoritarian governments, but you just know this statement put a spring in Brian Stelter’s step, certain as he was that they were talking about him.