Guest post by trusted source in South Korea.
Gwangju, South Korea has a long history of voting for left-leaning politicians and is the main hub for the far-left Democratic party of Korea.
For years, Gwangju has built an extensive public culture of commemoration around composer Jeong Yul-seong.
Jeong joined the Chinese Communist Party. He composed the March of the Eighth Route Army, which later became the official military anthem of China’s People’s Liberation Army.
Jeong Yul-seong also composed military music for North Korea and returned to North Korea during the Korean War with the Chinese People’s Volunteers — the Chinese forces fighting South Korea and the United Nations Command.
Despite that history, his legacy in Gwangju has been honored for decades.
His name was placed on a road.
A bust was erected in his honor.
A street exhibition and memorial facilities were created.
His birthplace was restored.
Gwangju pursued a Jeong Yul-seong historical park project costing approximately KRW 4.5 billion, roughly $3.3 million.
Music festivals and other cultural projects were organized around his legacy.
And Korean children were brought into this commemorative system through the Jeong Yul-seong Children’s Song Competition.
The attached footage shows just how far this went.
Korean children perform Jeong’s songs. Chinese-language performances appear on stage. An award is presented in the name of the Confucius Institute at Honam University. Chinese participants praise Jeong’s status in Chinese music history, while an event official speaks about protecting his reputation.
The Confucius Institute’s role went beyond appearing on an award.
The children’s competition was jointly organized with the Confucius Institute at Honam University. Winning Korean elementary-school students were given opportunities to travel to China, where they performed Jeong Yul-seong’s songs, including in Chinese.
Chinese state media also took notice of these activities.
China’s interest is entirely understandable. Jeong Yul-seong occupies an important place in China’s communist revolutionary and military history.
What is extraordinary is the degree to which public institutions in a U.S.-allied South Korea helped transform that same figure into a local cultural icon.
The Chinese government’s interest extended beyond cultural events.
After Jeong’s bust in Gwangju was damaged, the Chinese Consulate General in Gwangju requested its restoration. In 2025, the local district government decided to restore it, reportedly citing diplomatic relations with China among its considerations.
The symbolism is remarkable.
A South Korean local government had erected and maintained a memorial to a figure celebrated for his contribution to Communist China’s military tradition. When the memorial was damaged, representatives of the Chinese government asked that it be restored, and the Korean local government agreed.
This occurred in Gwangju, a city with enormous political significance in South Korea and a major stronghold of the ruling Democratic Party.
It is also a city where anti-U.S. military activism continues. In April 2026, activists near the Gwangju military air base again demanded the withdrawal of U.S. forces and an end to U.S.-ROK military exercises.
The historical contrast is disgraceful.
In 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea. American and other UN troops crossed the world to prevent the Republic of Korea from being destroyed. They fought North Korean forces and, after China’s massive intervention, Chinese troops.
Tens of thousands of foreign soldiers died defending South Korea. Many more were wounded, captured or permanently disabled.
South Korea’s survival and freedom were purchased at an enormous human cost.
Yet decades later, in one of the country’s most politically important cities, activists demand that American troops leave while public institutions have spent years honoring a man associated with the communist forces those soldiers fought.
The forces that helped save South Korea are treated as unwanted by some activists, while a figure associated with the forces that fought South Korea receives a road, a bust, memorial facilities, a historical park project, cultural festivals and children’s programs.
That is not historical neutrality.
It is an inversion of historical memory.
Calling these projects “culture” does not erase Jeong’s Communist Party membership.
Calling them “art” does not erase his military compositions.
Calling them “exchange” does not erase his association with the Chinese forces that fought South Korea during the Korean War.
And involving children does not turn commemoration into neutral historical education.
Jeong Yul-seong can and should be studied as a historical figure. His complete history should be taught.
But there is an obvious distinction between studying history and honoring it.
A road bearing someone’s name is an honor.
A bust is an honor.
A historical park built around that person’s legacy is an honor.
A children’s festival bearing that person’s name is an honor.
Taken together, these were not isolated acts of historical preservation. They constituted sustained public commemoration.
The participation of the Confucius Institute, Korean children’s performances in China, Chinese state-media attention, and the Chinese consulate’s intervention over Jeong’s damaged bust make the broader China connection impossible to ignore.
This reflects a disturbing tolerance in parts of South Korea’s political and cultural establishment toward Communist China and North Korea — even when the historical record directly conflicts with South Korea’s own national experience.
It is particularly offensive to the American and UN veterans who fought in Korea and to the families of those who never returned.
The Republic of Korea was not defended by Communist China or North Korea.
Those were the forces on the other side of the war.
South Korea survived because its own people fought for their country and because the United States and other UN nations came to its defense at an enormous cost in blood.
The freedom that allows people in Gwangju today to commemorate Jeong Yul-seong and demand the withdrawal of American troops exists because South Korea remained free.
That freedom was paid for in blood.
The least a free South Korea can do is remember whose blood paid for it.
The attached footage should not be viewed as an isolated children’s festival.
It is visual evidence of a much broader story: how a major city in a U.S. ally spent years turning a figure deeply connected to Communist China’s revolutionary and military history into a publicly honored cultural symbol.
Here is video of the children’s indoctrination and music contest in honor of Jeong Yul-seong.
광주 정율성 동요대회 충격 그 자체~
인민해방군의 군가를 부르는 아이들~
도대체 광주는 어떤 동네임? 😱😱😱😱 https://t.co/2f16rTqnom pic.twitter.com/Rz12aC4SkS
— Tesla World (@SylvesterKim99) August 17, 2026
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