The "Rubber Band" Great Wall Stretching to the North? ... Endless Distortions Even in Foreign Textbooks

The "World History" textbook published by Glenco shows the Great Wall extending to North Pyongan Province, and the territory of Goguryeo north of the Han River is marked as Chinese territory.
[Photo by VANK]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Sumi] The distorted image of China's Great Wall extending all the way to the North Korean region has been confirmed in world history textbooks published by famous publishers worldwide, sparking controversy over the Northeast Project.

On the 15th, the cyber diplomatic mission VANK reported that China's historical distortion is spreading through textbooks worldwide. VANK recently obtained and analyzed 40 world history textbooks published by well-known publishers in the United States and Europe, finding that only 4 of them accurately introduced the eastern end of the Great Wall as Shanhaiguan (山海關) in Hebei Province near Beijing on the map.

The remaining 29 textbooks distorted the eastern end of the Great Wall as Sinuiju and the Yalu River on the Korean Peninsula, and 7 even depicted the Great Wall extending to Pyongan Province in North Korea.

In these world history textbooks, besides the distorted length of the Great Wall, it was also confirmed that most of the territory during the Goguryeo period was marked as land belonging to China's Han dynasty.

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences conducted the Northeast Project from 2002 to 2007, promoting the logic of incorporating Goguryeo history as part of Chinese history. Furthermore, after the Northeast Project, they revised the length of the Great Wall again, causing controversy. In the mid-2000s, the length of the Great Wall was only about 6,000 km, but in 2009 it was extended to 8,851 km, and in 2012, including walls built by Goguryeo and Balhae, it was forcibly increased to 21,196.18 km. China erased traces of the Goguryeo fortress Bakjakseong (泊灼城) near the Yalu River and built Hushan Mountain Fortress (虎山山城) there, claiming it as part of the Great Wall. At that time, they published the "Chinese History Collection," claiming, "Based on four and a half years of field investigation, the Great Wall extends to the area near Pyongyang on the Korean Peninsula."

In response, last July, VANK confirmed that the Great Wall was introduced as extending to Pyongyang on China's famous encyclopedia Baidu and Chinese Wikipedia, and produced and distributed posters criticizing the historical distortion. At that time, VANK stated, "China's distortion of the Great Wall is considered a 'New Northeast Project' aimed at incorporating ancient Korean history such as Gojoseon, Goguryeo, and Balhae into Chinese history," and created digital posters containing facts about China's historical distortion in English, Korean, and Chinese, launching a campaign to inform the world through social networking services (SNS).

Now, China's distorted information is confirmed not only within China but also in famous world textbooks worldwide. VANK emphasized, "The location of China's Great Wall in foreign famous world history textbooks is gradually expanding to the Korean Peninsula," and added, "We must prevent the distorted world maps from causing the history of Goguryeo in Korea to be recognized as Chinese history by young people worldwide through the most famous textbook publishers in the United States and Europe." They also asserted, "If we do not stop this now, Goguryeo history will be disguised as Chinese history."