South Korean Historical Science on the Northeast Project of the PRC

Abstract

The article reviews several publications that analyze and criticize the so-called Northeast Project. It was a program of research on the history and modernity of Northeast China in 2002–2007, carried out by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences with the support of the PRC government. Its purpose was to bolster China’s historical rights to Manchuria. In the Republic of Korea, this project was sharply criticized for fitting the modern ethno-national theory of the PRC to ancient ethnic groups and states. Korean-Chinese contradictions over the history of Kojoseon, Puyo, Koguryo, and Bohai remain highly politicized. Therefore a comprehensive study of the ancient history of the Northeast of China, the Korean Peninsula and the South of the Russian Far East will face difficulties for a long time. South Korean researchers consider the ancient states of the PRC’s Northeast an integral part of the history of Korea and agree to "share" with China only in order to recognize the presence of other ethnic groups and close ties of these countries with the core of the Chinese civilization.