Communist China and North Korea: Shared History and Ideology

Today, China and North Korea are two extremely powerful communist countries. However, communism was not always present. In fact, communism was a new political theory proposed and published on February 21st of 1848 by Karl Marx in his famous “Communist Manifesto.” In 1949, approximately one hundred years after the Communist Manifesto was written, Mao Zedong came into power and henceforth, adopted a form of communism. It was after World War II and the Chinese Civil War, that the Chinese Communists were able to overthrow Chiang Kai Shek and the Chinese Nationalist Party; hence, this new government swore to form a “brand new” China, which modeled and resembled closely to Marxism-Leninism. North Korea and China’s geography, mutual history, and ideology proved to make them similar in many aspects in terms of reforms and revolutions; however, it was not until death of Mao Zedong and the rise of Deng Xiao Ping in the mid-1970s that drew the distinct line between North Korea and China communism.

In similarity, North Korea began practicing communism when its land was divided between North and South due to the 38th Parallel. In August of 1945, the Soviet Army ruled North Korea until a domestic regime could be formed. Hence, the land of Korea was divided between Soviet forces and American forces. Due to the fact the North Korea refused to join the United Nations, both North and South Korea began to fight over sovereignty of the land as a whole; hence, this “fight” sparked the Korean War on June 12th of 1950. The horrific war lasted for three years and was finally ended in 1953 due to an armistice; however, the two countries are technically still at war with each other because a peace treaty was never signed.

China and North Korea may be ve...

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