The Korean War, Anti-US Propaganda, and the Marginalization of Dissent in China, 1950–1953

Abstract:This article investigates the workings of the anti-US propaganda of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the marginalization of dissent in the public realm of China during the Korean War. Through an examination of the actions and reactions of both propagandists and people at the grassroots, this study demonstrates that China's eruption of patriotism and anti-Americanism during the war was far from spontaneous or natural but rather resulted from the interplay between the CCP's propaganda activities and people's reception of the propaganda. I argue that the CCP strategically appropriated war memories and coordinated public articulation and collective sharing of war suffering and of atrocities perpetrated by Japan and by the United States, allowing the CCP to legitimize the promotion of hatred against the United States and the labeling of dissenting voices as connected to China's deadly enemies, the United States and the Nationalists.