Korean War and Citizenship of the Korean-Chinese: Loyalties and Making a sub-nation

초록

Participation in war, as an individual or a group, usually means demonstration of loyalty to a certain nation-state. For Koreans in China the Korean War (1950-1953) became an exception. Although the Korean-Chinese entered the war as part of North Korean People’s Army, they soon became a sub-nation of the ‘Chinese nation’ that was being formed by the People’s Republic of China after the war. My question relates to how it happened and why the loyalty of Koreans became twisted. In this paper, I argue that there were three factors that enabled Koreans in China to become a Chinese sub-nation: modern nation-state building; international Cold War structure; and the choice of Korean-Chinese themselves. WWII and consequent local wars, such as the Civil War in China and the Korean War, stimulated the nation-state making in East Asia. A modern nation-state requires territorial integrity and national cohesion. China was no exception: making national boundaries in territory as well as in people’s minds became an utmost task of the newly established People’s Republic of China. The Korean War became a landmark in this nation-making process. Debates on whether the Korean-Chinese were part of the Korean nation and whether the area of their residence, Gando (Jiandao in Chinese), was a part of Korea itself became marginalised and finally ceased. The Yanbian Korean-Chinese Autonomous Region was established in 1952 as an administrative body of the PRC. The concept of ‘Chinese nation’, which included Han Chinese and ethnic minorities (shaoshu minzu), was formed soon after the Korean War.